Woman Sentenced to Six Years in Plot to Kill Treasury Secretary
Riley English, who told Capitol police she brought homemade firebombs to kill Scott Bessent, was sentenced after telling the judge she never wanted to hurt anyone.
A Massachusetts woman who told Capitol police she brought homemade firebombs to Washington to kill Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was sentenced Tuesday to six years and one month in prison.
Riley English, 26, a transgender woman from South Deerfield, Massachusetts, said she was in a mental health crisis and abusing drugs when she drove to the Capitol on January 27, 2025, the day of Bessent's Senate confirmation, and told police she intended to kill him.
"I never wanted to hurt anyone," English told U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras. "I'm not a political person. I'm not a violent person."
Contreras, an appointee of President Barack Obama, sentenced English to the prison term followed by three years of supervised release. She has been jailed since her arrest and will receive credit for nearly 20 months already served. Nobody was injured. Bessent was not at the Capitol when English arrived, and Contreras said the molotov cocktails she carried appeared incapable of igniting, giving her plan an "exceedingly low or nonexistent" chance of success.
Prosecutors had sought a 10-year, one-month sentence. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan Horan said English had planned the "attempted political assassination" for at least a month, calling it deliberate rather than impulsive, at a time when politically motivated violence was rising nationally.
Defense attorney Maria Jacob said English was "terrified and traumatized" over fears of how transgender people would be treated under the second Trump administration and was in a "diminished mental state." She called English's actions "a cry for help."
Investigators found a folding knife, two homemade firebombs and a lighter on English at the Capitol. She told police she was inspired by Luigi Mangione, charged in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare's CEO, saying she had been "on a mission" and thinking about the plot because of him. English also said she was terminally ill and "wanted to do something before I go."
English said she had originally planned to target Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and the Heritage Foundation before switching to Bessent after reading an online post about his confirmation hearing.
"There was no indication that she was acting rationally that day," Contreras said.
This article was produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI), in accordance with our editorial policy.
