A Massachusetts woman who told police that she brought homemade firebombs to the US Capitol to kill Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was sentenced on Tuesday to just over six years in prison.
“I’m not a political person. I’m not a violent person. Contreras, who was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Barack Obama, sentenced English to six years and one month of imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release. Bessent wasn’t at the Capitol when English arrived on Jan. The Molotov cocktails that English brought to the Capitol appeared to be incapable of igniting, the judge noted.
Riley English, a 26-year-old transgender woman, said she was in the grips of a mental health crisis and abusing drugs when she drove to Washington in January 2025 and told Capitol police that she was there to kill Bessent on the day of his Senate confirmation. English has remained jailed since her arrest and will get credit for the nearly 20 months that she already has spent in custody. 27, 2025. Prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of 10 years and one month for English.
“I never wanted to hurt anyone,” she told US District Judge Rudolph Contreras. Nobody was injured, and Contreras said her plan to harm Bessent had an “exceedingly low or non-existent” chance of success. Assistant US Attorney Brendan Horan said English had been planning the “attempted political assassination” for at least a month at a time when the threat of politically motivated violence has been mounting in the US. English also said she traveled from Massachusetts to Washington intending to kill other Republican political figures — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and House Speaker Mike Johnson — and to burn down the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, according to police. English changed her target to Bessent after reading an internet post about his confirmation hearing, police said.
The case against English fits a pattern of politically motivated violence that has plagued the US over the past decade.
In a letter addressed to the judge, Bessent said he worries the country “cannot survive this assault.”
