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Thousands of donors raced to the aid of Marine Daniel Penny Saturday as a fund for his legal defense surpassed $1 million – a tsunami of support so massive it swamped the hosting website and disabled it for more than an hour.
“There was a big surge in traffic and our servers were temporarily overwhelmed,” Jacob Wells, co-founder of the giving platform GiveSendGo, told The Post.
Penny, 24, who placed Jordan Neely in a fatal chokehold on a Manhattan subway train on May 1, was arraigned Friday on a second-degree manslaughter charge and released on $100,000 bail.
But more than 23,000 donors — who mostly remained anonymous — have flocked to the GiveSendGo campaign created by his attorneys to show their support.
By Saturday night, the “Daniel Penny’s Legal Defense Fund” site had raised a total of $1,400,314 — with donations averaging $821 a minute at one point.
The surge of gifts swelled to more than $1,100 per minute before the site locked up briefly earlier in the day.
Hundreds of supporters left heartfelt messages on the website, praising Penny and denouncing Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s prosecution.
“The man is a hero,” one donor wrote on the website. “He took down a deranged lunatic.”
“I wish this Marine was on the train with me every time,” wrote another nameless donor — who kicked in $100 and identified themselves as a regular subway rider. “Thank you thank you.”
“Attacking this hero is a travesty of Justice,” Alfred Sletten wrote as he contributed $10 to the cause. “New York and the United States should be ashamed.”
Marcia Mulcahy, who lived across the street from Penny and his family for four years on Long Island, called him “a nice kid.”
“Just look at the [fundraiser] to see how people feel about him,” Mulcahy said. “We’re all contributing to it.”
“He was just trying to help on the subway,” she said. “It was obviously a scary situation and it all went wrong. But he didn’t go in there trying to hurt anyone. He was trying to help.”
Penny’s attorney Thomas Kenniff said he is “confident” that his client “will be absolved of any wrongdoing.”
Penny “is no stranger to adversity,” Kenniff told The Post. “He enlisted into the Marine Corps out of high school. While many of his peers opted for comforts of college life, Daniel swore an oath to defend his country.
“He is prepared to face this case with that same resolve, and humbled to know he is not walking that path alone.”
Fund proceeds that “exceed those necessary to cover Mr. Penny’s legal defense” will be given to a New York City mental health program, his attorneys wrote on the crowdfunding platform.
In a shocking video, Penny wrapped his arms around the neck of the homeless Neely with the help of other commuters.
According to witness accounts, Neely was acting erratically and was threatening other passengers before Penny stepped in.
Neely had a long history of mental illness and had several prior arrests.
The city medical examiner ruled Neely’s death a homicide, noting he died due to “compression of neck (chokehold).”
GiveSendGo, which bills itself as “The #1 Free Christian Fundraising Site,” was founded in 2014 as an alternative to GoFundMe – the crowdfunding behemoth that has been criticized for removing campaigns that go against progressive orthodoxy.
“GiveSendGo does not support right-wing causes over left-wing causes,” Wells said Friday, but “allows campaigns, that are legal endeavors, from all sides of the political/ideological divide.”
Last year, the website opened its platform to Jose Alba, the Manhattan bodega worker who was charged by Bragg’s office for stabbing an attacker, after GoFundMe deleted Alba’s defense fund from its website.
In 2020, a GiveSendGo fund-raiser collected more than $520,000 to defray legal fees for Kyle Rittenhouse, who was acquitted of all charges in shootings that killed two rioters and injured a third in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
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