A Massachusetts woman, Riley English, has been sentenced to six years and one month in prison for plotting to kill Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent with a Molotov cocktail at the U.S. Capitol in 2025.
English, a 26-year-old transgender woman, admitted to police that she brought homemade firebombs to the Capitol and intended to harm Bessent on the day of his Senate confirmation. However, Bessent was not present at the Capitol when English arrived on January 27, 2025, and the Molotov cocktails she brought appeared to be incapable of igniting.
During her sentencing, English told U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras that she never wanted to hurt anyone and is not a violent person. Contreras acknowledged that English has had a difficult life but expressed hope that her time in jail has set her on the right path.
Prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of 10 years and one month for English, citing that she had been planning the attempted political assassination for at least a month. However, English’s defense attorney argued that she was in a diminished mental state due to fears of what would happen to transgender people under the second Trump administration.
According to investigators, English was found with a folding knife, two homemade firebombs, and a lighter in her possession at the Capitol. She had also told police that she was influenced by Luigi Mangione, the man charged with fatally shooting the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, and had intended to kill other Republican political figures and burn down the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
English will receive credit for the nearly 20 months she has already spent in custody and will be followed by three years of supervised release after her prison term.
