The David Knight Show - Interview: Daniel Penny Saved Strangers — New York Put Him on Trial

Episode Date: August 21, 2026

Thomas Kenniff, the attorney who won Daniel Penny's acquittal, joins David Knight to walk through why the civil lawsuit that followed is opportunism — and why the medical examiner's office amended its cause of death finding within 24 hours, well before toxicology came back, in what Kenniff calls a straightforward capitulation to political pressure. Jordan Nealy had 50-plus prior arrests, an outstanding bench warrant for felony assault, and was considered by professionals to be among the most severely psychotic people on the street — a paranoid schizophrenic the system declined to institutionalize at every turn. Money should have intrinsic value AND transactional privacy: Go to https://davidknight.gold/ for great deals on physical gold/silver For 10% off Gerald Celente's prescient Trends Journal, go to https://trendsjournal.com/ and enter the code “KNIGHT” For high quality made in America products go to HomeSteadProducts.shop and use promo code “Knight” for 10% off your purchases Find out more about the show and where you can watch it at TheDavidKnightShow.com If you would like to support the show and our family please consider subscribing monthly here: SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.com/the-david-knight-show Or you can send a donation throughMail: David Knight POB 994 Kodak, TN 37764Zelle: @[e-mail] App at: $davidknightshowBTC to: bc1qkuec29hkuye4xse9unh7nptvu3y9qmv24vanh7Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-david-knight-show--2653468/support.

The United States of America, Kent Dawson. She's missing. She went for a run, but came home. Kristen, this was not random. Where is she? John, she was pregnant. Every secret has a friend. You promised me she wouldn't be hurt. So if her dad, I'm done.

You think it's that simple, do you? You are destined to be president. What do you know about Kent Dawson, Don? It's the job of my friends and me here to protect the next president. As I said, gentlemen, be careful getting home. These roads can be dangerous at night. The other blood sample got a hit. The suspect's being held at the tombs.

We need to get there. Was he in on it? Had to be. We can make them present this case to a grand jury. Today, the U.S. Attorney's Office has called a 7am press conference concerning a major political figure. Palmer! You're not President Dawson. All right, joining us now is the lawyer who has successfully defended Daniel Penny.

And we didn't talk about that a lot on this show, but we did talk about it several times the, what I think was an injustice. And so we wanted to talk to him about the trial and what is happening now. There is a civil case that he's still defending him against. And he's also written a book. And that looks very fascinating. It's a book called Tuxedo Park. It just came out yesterday. It is a fictional book.

It's not about the Daniel Penny case. But I think it lays out his view of the profession of being a lawyer. I'm very interested in talking to him because he's been on both sides of this coin. He's been both a prosecutor and a defense attorney. So joining us now is Thomas Kenneth. Thank you for joining us, sir. Yeah, so good to be here. Before we talk about the Daniel Penny case,

let's talk a little bit about the different roles of prosecutors and defense attorneys. Because you've been on both sides of that when you were a JAG officer in the military. You were involved in both prosecutions and defense. Tell us a little bit about your perspective on that. Yeah, you know, I started my career, at least my career in criminal law. as a prosecutor. I was hired by Janine Piro, who was then the elected district attorney of Westchester County here in New York. And then I somewhat roughly simultaneously with that, I commissioned as an officer into the New York Army National Guard JAG Corps. And I was almost immediately

deployed to war in Iraq. I served for a year in Operation Iraqi Freedom 2005. And I was more on a prosecutorial side, the JAG Corps, as I had been in the district attorney's office. And then, you know, after a few years, I kind of made the transition over to defense, which is not uncommon. And, you know, it is interesting to get to see both sides of the criminal justice system. I think in both instances, you know, it's about justice, but as a prosecutor, you're really kind of representing the system and representing law and order, so to speak, in more general sense. I mean, you do develop a relationship sometimes with the victims of the crime or the family is, but you're not representing an individual like you are in the case of a defense attorney.

So as a defense attorney, things become much more personal. And you have that feeling of, you know, hey, I have an individual's life in my hands. And that's a tremendous responsibility. Yeah, yeah. We just watched a movie. And I forget what it was, it was about a decade old. it had Tom Cruise and it began with a defense attorney getting into a cab and she's talking about this guy I know I'm defending he's innocent and I just don't feel like I've done a good enough job

it's going to haunt me over this and I guess that really is the case as well when you are defending somebody that you think is innocent was that the case certainly with Daniel Penny well you know it was certainly the case with Daniel Penny and you know David one of the the questions I get, you know, most frequently is, well, I think every defense attorney gets this at cocktail parties or social engagements is, well, how do you defend those people or how do you defend someone when you know they're guilty? Yeah, that's the other. The answer I always give is, you know, it's the hardest thing to do is represent someone you know is innocent. You know, as a defense attorney, is you got to zealously represent your client, whether you like them or not, whether you think

they're guilty or innocent, somewhere in between. Part of what you're doing is defending the Constitution of the United States and their rights under it. But, you know, if you're representing someone who's really not a great person and you know that they've, quote, unquote, done it, you know, you're probably not going to wake up at night in both sweats if the jury gets it wrong. But when you have someone like Daniel Penny, you know, it's really the most difficult thing that any lawyer can be called upon to do. I imagine. Yeah.

When you're looking at, when you're defending somebody that you think is guilty that did it, in a sense, as you point out, you're defending the Constitution, you're defending the rule of law, and that's really important because that really is about defending innocent people in general.

And I've had a discussion about some of the cases that I've talked about on this show here. Obviously, it looks like the person did the crime, and people get upset with me about that. because I'd say, yeah, but we've got to follow due process. You can't just ship them abroad or whatever you feel like doing to them. I mean, we don't want to have a lynch mob society, especially when it's being run from the top. That's very dangerous.

But, you know, absolutely. You hit the nail on the head. And, you know, the minute we start only providing us Ellis defense for people that look kind of innocent is the moment, you know, your entire justice system is gone. Because history is replete with examples of individuals who at the time were considered total. contemptible, totally undeserving of representation or mercy or anything of the like. And, you know, then you look back on it and say, well, you know, thank goodness. We, those people had a defense or they really should have had a defense. Maybe they didn't get it.

You know, so you have to treat, you know, I always say it's sort of like a doctor and a triage unit or an emergency room. That's right. You know, you could have a cold-blooded killer on the operating table or you could have, you know, a mother Teresa type person. Either way, you take out your tools and you get to work. Yeah, that's right. Now, in your novel, your hero is a burned out ex-assistent district attorney.

That's not autobiographical, is it? Well, you know, look, I think what I've learned on the writing journey, if that's what we're going to call it, is that a good writer, any good writer, is going to write a lot about what they know? or at least learn a lot about what they're writing about so they know it. You know, I've always been kind of a history buff and maybe, you know, perhaps I'd like to write a book about Abraham Lincoln or something, you know, but I don't have hours to sit in a research library.

I mean, I barely have hours to sit in a law library because I'm so busy. You know, so I decided to, you know, I had a concept and I said, let me, you know, I'll write about what I know. And, you know, the book deals with a, you know, sort of a prosecutor becomes disenchanted and then is sort of drawn into moonlighting again as a prosecutor on the case of a strange, you know, teenage girlfriend of his from 20 years earlier that wound up, that goes missing. And it's an abduction that then becomes a suspected murder. and as he's sort of unraveling the clues and the evidence, it begins to lead back to the frontrunner for the presidential election, who then becomes the president-elect.

And now he's in a race against time to try and stop this individual from taking the White House, you know, before inauguration day. That's a great premise. Yeah, you know, it's spicy, I think. But, you know, yeah, I mean, it is that I was once. a young prosecutor in the York case is about a young prosecutor. It's fictional, but I certainly, you know, I think I wove a good amount of my personal experiences and my professional experiences into it. Yeah, we talked about the defense side of it, but we look at the prosecution side of it

and what might burn somebody out. You know, with the case of Daniel Penny, everybody was just astounded that they didn't give him a medal and said they indicted him. And I guess that's the other issue. going back to that case, let's talk a little bit about the specifics of the Daniel Perry case. Just remind the audience in case they don't know some of the details of what happened with that. Yeah, so Daniel Penny is a, was it is a former Marine, although Marines are never former Marines, but he served as four years in Marine Corps. He enlisted right out of high school, which is not so common. and you know, for someone who goes to a suburban high school along Long Island, New York,

as opposed to maybe other parts of the country. So it was a courageous, selfless act, as it is for anybody who takes the oath and is willing to serve the country in any capacity. He returned after his four-year deployment. He was well commended, well decorated for his time in the Marines. But he decided to reenter civilian life. He came back here to the New York area where he was from. He enrolled in a city college in Brooklyn, Brooklyn Tech, and took an apartment downtown Manhattan

and was doing what college kids did, do. He was working a part-time job using his GI Bill and looking to get his education and make a life for himself after the Marines. Unfortunately, he encountered an individual by name of Jordan Neely, who was a to call him a recidivist offender would be to minimize it. He was really one of the city's most prolific criminals and one of the most dangerously psychotic individuals on the street. Those aren't just my words. That's, you know, how he was listed in NYPD profiles and so forth. And when Jordan nearly entered a subway in

the afternoon in Manhattan, when Danny was on his way back from class, you know, he made very clear that his intention was to do harm to the men, women, children on that subway train. Danny, you know, selflessly stepped in to subdue this individual. Unfortunately, in the aftermath of the encounter, Jordan Neely died, and that's tragic. As is any death, but it was not, certainly not what Danny intended, and the evidence of trial, even in the show that, you know, it wasn't what he caused. you know, Jordan Neely died of factors that weren't related or weren't caused by the restraint that Danny used. That's interesting.

And then why was he prosecuted? I mean, he was not arrested on the spot, right? No, he wasn't. In fact, what happened was he was utterly cooperative. He waited on the scene for many minutes, upwards of, you know, 10 minutes before the, from the time the encounter ended. and the police finally showed up. He was, you know, very concerned for Jordan. No one thought that Jordan Neely had died of a chokehold at that point.

In fact, the police were administering Narcan, the emergency room records, you know, indicated initially that cause of death was an overdose. I mean, he did have a lot of drugs in the system. And, you know, Dan, me being very cooperative, tells the police what happened on the subway station. It's all on body-worn camera, by the way. I need companies then voluntarily. Mm-hmm. Back to the police precinct where he's debriefed by, you know, two seasoned detectives

for about an hour. Um, he tells them, you know, exactly how things played out and they send them home. Um, and, you know, that was where it was, at least for a few days. Uh, and even when I, you know, initially spoke with the prosecutor that was originally signed to this case, assistant district attorney, uh, in the Manhattan DA's office that, that I dealt with before. and was a reasonable person. The original overtures from the DA's office was,

look, we're going to take our time with this. We want to do it long and throw an investigation. Maybe next month we'll have a meeting in my office, in our office, among the attorneys, we'll kind of see where things go. They weren't pledging never to prosecute him, but there was certainly no indication there was any urgency. And then what happened, of course,

you know, the politicians, the agenda-driven politicians, the activists, of the world, the BLM, the Black Lives Matters, you know, started rationing up the rancor, if you will. There was a protest at the subway stop at the subway station where the protest is one on the tracks to block the trains. And now it's just the drumbeat was loud and steady. And within a day or two of the call I just described, I got another call and saying, yeah, well, sorry, you know, the orders come from the top. Your client's got to surrender tomorrow.

And at that point, well, you know, what are you going to say no? Wow. Wow. So the, the DA's Alvin Bragg at that point, right? Yes. Yeah. And so what's dealing with him correctly, but it's his office. Right, right.

And so, yeah, it got a lot of attention on both sides and everybody was really amazed that they would prosecute him. But of course, as you're talking about, it was very political. And what was the political context at the time? Wasn't that around the time of George Floyd as well? Well, you know, it was much closer to it. And, you know, we all know, you know, how things can change, you know, how quickly things can change just based on, yeah, individual incidents and also just the public mood, if you will. In May of 2023, it was a different time than, you know, May of 2025 or May of 2006.

Not that we've, you know, by any means overcome our issues as a society, but, you know, at that point, There was still very much a fervor, you know, to judging, prejudging guilt, you know, in any kind of cross-racial case where there's the death of a black person, regardless of the circumstances, regardless of whether there's justification or not. The BLM movement still had a lot of, you know, gusto behind it. the George Floyd situation. And I think since then, people have, you know, a lot of people have started to take a more nuanced view of all that. Step back. So, look, you know, is this, you know, there may have a tragedy here, but was it, you know, was it everything that was suggested to be? But in May of 23, we had all that headwind in our face.

And we were also, you know, dealing with a borough that, you know, politically. is arguably is more liberal than a place in the country as far as voter registration and so forth. So there were a lot of people that said that, well, you're never going to get a fair trial in this case. It doesn't be in this venue in the city. It doesn't matter what the facts are. Yeah. And we look at this. If I remember correctly, I think there was a guy who was helping Daniel that was black himself, wasn't there?

Yeah. He was certainly a darker, you know, skinned Hispanic. individual. And again, look, I don't think any of this should matter. Yeah, I don't think it was racial at all. And that's what everybody was. It was made racial. Yeah, for political reasons. But it's certainly appropriate when you know, when one side tries to racialize it to point out that, wait a second, and more than the individuals that were helping him, you know, the train itself. I mean, this is, this is a midtown Manhattan on a week day. You know, the subway car. is not populated with all white people.

That's right. You have yet to be out of New York City subway train that is. You know, it's about as diverse as you can get, you know, black, white, Asians, Hispanic. And, you know, everyone on that train, I mean, virtually without exception, applauded what Danny did. In fact, you know, there were black people, men and women that stayed around. talked to the police to say, you know, look, he, he was trying to help us. He didn't do anything wrong. This other guy was a scary, you know, he was seething. He was going to hurt someone. And that played out again at the trial. I mean, one of the poor things that, you know,

I knew one of our missions, one of our objectives, myself in the legal team of trial was we said, we have to put the jury box in that subway car and let them, you know, see what these, what the passengers saw, feel what they felt, sense what they. they sent same way Danny had experienced all that and the bystanders, you know, because there was an attempt by the DA's office as well, you know, yeah, he was, you know, Jordan Neely was a bad, you know, was saying things and he had a record. But, you know, this, this is just another, you know, guy on the New York City subway carrying on. And we had these witnesses come in again, you know, it was a black woman who testified before the jury. She said, look, I've been, I've been riding the subway

for 50 years in whole life. I've been purses. I've been purses. personally accosted on the subway. People try to sexually install me on the subway. None of those incidents scared me like Jordan Neely scared me. It was very powerful. And her words were echoed in so many ways by so many other witnesses. Yeah, it was a righteous cause defending him. It absolutely was.

Of course, you know, as we're talking about before, you work with the system that is there. He certainly was no Luigi, was he? Mangione. No, you know, and you got to, you know, you can't, there I think it was a temptation to lump, you know, criminal defendants or, you know, into the same box. Well, you know, he did, you know, very different, very different facts and circumstances. Well, it surprises me how many people have defended Luigi and donated money to him as well. And, of course, even though he was acquitted, Daniel Penny is still facing a civil lawsuit and you were involved in. helping in with that as well. Tell us a little bit about that. Yeah, so, you know, a lot of people

who, you know, aren't involved or follow the legal system closely or aren't lawyers, don't realize that, you know, there are, yeah, there are two systems of justice as a criminal and a civil. And you can't have a situation where even though someone is fully acquitted as Daniel Pennie was in the criminal case, that, you know, they can still face. say a civil lawsuit. Doesn't mean the lawsuit has merit. Doesn't mean it's going to be successful. In fact, we're quite confident that it won't be in this case for all the reasons the criminal case wasn't successful, but for the prosecution. But there's not an absolute bar on it. It's not a double jeopardy situation. The classic example is the O.J. Simpson case. Again, although I'm

low to mention O.J. Simpson in the same breath as the client because it was not O.J. Yeah. Two utterly disparate situations. But the point, is that you know these lawsuits you know happen you know sometimes they have merit other times they don't I would say that this is an indication where the lawsuit that does not have much merit and you know I think it's smacks of opportunism among you know that that was you know driven by you know some people with political agendas and some people just want to try to profit off a tragedy. Let's talk a little bit about the guy who started all this.

His name was Jordan Neely, was it? And he died now. What did they rule the death was from? So, you know, it's interesting because they originally, you know, they originally indicated it with, with the original autopsy report said, you know, cause unknown, you know, you know, you know. indicate a homicide, but, you know, a homicide is a, in terms of forensic pathology, is a death by unnatural causes, right?

And it's not a legal conclusion, as in, you know, people try to equate it with murder. Homicide used in a different context in a courtroom has a different meaning. But, you know, they were the original autopsy record, which we cross-examined, my partner, Stephen Razor, cross-examined the city of the medical examiner very adeptly on this. and, you know, confronted her with it. It's, you know, awaiting toxicology. Because they, too, of course, were under the impression that Jordan Ely may have overdosed. It's what everyone believes that.

And then within about 24 hours, they then amended their cause of death, which was long before the toxicology was back. And we, you know, I think suggested, I think it was quite apparent that, the medical examiner's office became politicized, just like the district attorney's office did in this case, and basically yielded to political pressure, both internal and external. Wow. Now, he had a long rap sheet, didn't he? And what does that tell us about our justice system in general, how many times somebody can be arrested and released? Or if somebody has a mental issue and they put him on the street, what does that say about that?

Well, it shows that it's an abject failure. I don't think anybody even seriously, we would seriously try to argue differently unless they're really arguing their agenda. You know, there is a woke progressive criminal justice agenda that has taken hold in the city. That includes a large contingent, by the way, that believe that no one should ever be sent to jail under any circumstances. Yeah. Oh, yeah. No bail. Yeah, just let everybody up.

Yeah, you'd like to, you know, say, well, you know, those are the extremists. and they certainly are, but the reality is that, you know, once those quote-unquote extremists have gotten such a hold of such a foothold and such influence that he can't really call them extremists anymore because they are, you know, within this political culture and this city and many others, they represent, you know, at least something that has a viewpoint that has become much more mainstream. I mean, as difficult as that can be to for any reasonable person to represent. their head around. You know, so, yeah, I mean, Jordan Neely was, in fact, he, they got a bench warrant out for him for a felony assault. He had committed on the subway against a woman in her 60s where he bashed her face in. Wow.

He had 50 some odd other arrests and convictions. Those are only the offenses we know about. I mean, you know, people think that, you know, any contact with the criminal justice system results in a record that's far from the truth, particularly in this town. And then more than that, you know, and, you know, and, you know, and, you know, and, you know, And these things are really, you know, in his case, were joined at the hip, as they often are. He was deeply psychotic. He was considered one of the most psychotic people, you know, walking the streets because

of paranoid schizophrenia, which of course is not his fault. You know, Jordan Neely, you know, the system in many ways failed him. Perhaps, you know, long before he saw the inside of a jail cell, he should have been institutionalized and gotten, you know, the psychiatric treatment that he. needed. People in with paranoid schizophrenia can't self-regulate. They need to be, you know, dealt with in a custodial setting, at least until you stabilize them and then they need to be closely monitored. None of that was done here. And it's a story that's repeated day after day after day. Yeah. In a lot of big cities in America, certainly including New York City.

Yeah, we have this catch and release justice system, if you will. And then we have a just let everybody out of the mental institutions on the other side of many times we have as you point out like in this individual the two of those things converge don't they uh well it is an amazing case and certainly we hope that this works out well for daniel penny uh is there a go fund me for him yeah there's a go fund me that's been set up for a while it's been very successful um it's been quiet uh lately because a lot of people just assume well yeah yeah but the reality is that he is still defending this civil suit. It takes a lot of resources, not just the lawyers, but the experts and all else. So, yeah, I would encourage everybody to take a look at the GoFundMeep.

I'm sorry, give send go, not go from going. Give send go. And, you know, even though you'll see that he's raised a lot of money already, understand that he's, you know, in the midst of a second major legal battle and uh you know anybody who can contribute is uh is doing a good thing for uh you know someone who tried to do and did do the right thing for others selflessly yeah that's right and of course we've had the uh the new mayor of new york mom danny has said that he wants to get more police out of the subway and he wants to have citizens do take up uh some more response to that i wonder uh who the next daniel penny is going to be well you also wonder you know how many Daniel Penny is we going to have left?

I mean, certainly because the system does so much through a not just prosecution like this to deter, you know, decent people, you know, good Samaritans, you know, from standing up because they know that even if it goes right and they're able to protect people, they could wind up facing, you know, the working end of a criminal indictment. So it's a terrible thing.

Yeah, I have a situation where you step in the gap and you put your life at risk and you help people. And then the system comes after you. And when people look at that, they're even less likely to step up and do anything about it, aren't they? Yeah, absolutely. You know, and it's the, you know, it's very difficult, you know, trying to change the system, trying to go up against the system.

That's a lot of what Tuxedo Park is about in my book. You know, it's the idea that you have a prosecutor, but he's sort of because he's going against the grain of what the political establishment wants who's trying to protect their own, you know, he winds up, you know, being not part of the system, but but trying to fight against it to get justice. And, you know, as I said before, you know, I chose to write about, you know, things I live, things I've experienced. So it's a fictional book, but the themes that the protagonist is dealing with are ones that

happen in real life, in courts throughout this country, probably beyond. And, you know, it's an important theme. You know, somebody who is willing to try to, you know, protect others, you know, like a Daniel Penny, even at tremendous cost to themselves. Yes, yes. Well, it sounds like a fascinating premise and certainly, you know your stuff. The book is Tuxedo Park. It just came out yesterday. We noticed that it was available as an audiobook as well.

So that's something for people to think about. Tuxedo Park. And we're talking to the author here. Mr. Kinniff and sorry, your first name is Thomas, right? Yes, Thomas. Thomas Kenneth, S-K-E-N-I-F, and the book is Tuxedo Park. Sounds like a fascinating premise for a book. And again, you were somebody who has lived that experience. It should be a very interesting novel. Thank you so much for joining us. Yeah, thank you so much for having me, David. And, you know, the book is available on, you know,

really cross-platforms. Amazon seems to be the place to go these days. We also have a great website, tuxedo parkbook.com. Oh, good. Yeah, we'll put that in the notes. Yeah, we have a, and there's a great book trailer on there, very cinematic. So that, that in itself is worth checking it out. That's great. You go on there by the book, tuxedoparkbook.com or go straight to Amazon.

You know, this is going to be a very exciting read for anybody who loves the sort of subject matter that we're covering on your show. That's great. Yeah, it is always a wonderful, furtale, ground for intrigue, isn't it, in the legal system? It looks like it's one of those Toxedo Parkbook.com. Thank you so much, Thomas Keneff. Thank you so much for joining us. And thank you for what you did for Daniel Penny as well. It's good to see justice served every once in a while, even if it's difficult for the people who have to go through it. I know it's an ordeal, even if you're acquitted. But thank you for that. And I'm very glad that you

are successful with that. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Great being here. Thank you. The common man. They created common core to dumb down our children. They created common past to track and control us. Their commons project to make sure the commoners own nothing and the communist future. They see the common man as simple, unsophisticated, ordinary. But each of us has worth and dignity created in the image of God.

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