(Headline USA) A Massachusetts man who told police that he brought homemade firebombs to the U.S. Capitol to kill Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was sentenced on Tuesday to just over six years in prison.
Riley English, a 26-year-old man who identifies as a woman, said he was in the grips of a mental health crisis and abusing drugs when he drove to Washington in January 2025 and told Capitol police that he was there to kill Bessent on the day of his Senate confirmation.
“I never wanted to hurt anyone,” he told U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras. “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. English has remained jailed since his arrest and will get credit for the nearly 20 months that he already has spent in custody. He pleaded guilty in March to two weapons charges.
“You’ve had a very difficult life,” Contreras told English. “Hopefully, the progress you’ve made in jail to this date has set you on the right path.”
Nobody was injured, and Contreras said English’s plan to harm Bessent had an “exceedingly low or non-existent” chance of success. Bessent wasn’t at the Capitol when English arrived on Jan. 27, 2025. The Molotov cocktails that English brought to the Capitol appeared to be incapable of igniting, the judge noted.
Prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of 10 years and one month for English. Assistant U.S. 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 U.S.
“This was not a chance encounter or an impulsive act,” Horan said.
The case against English fits a pattern of politically motivated violence that has plagued the U.S. over the past decade. In a letter addressed to the judge, Bessent said he worries the country “cannot survive this assault.”
“Political violence is an attack on the rule of law and on representative government itself,” Bessent wrote. “It also deprives our country of service by talented men and women with ability and integrity who may reasonably decide that no job is worth threats to themselves and their families.”
English’s prosecution drew comparisons to the case against California resident Sophie Roske, who was sentenced last October to over eight years in prison for attempting to assassinate U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh at his Maryland home.
Prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of no less than 30 years for Roske, a biological man who identifies as a woman. They appealed Roske’s sentence by U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman, calling it unreasonably lenient.
Defense attorney Maria Jacob said English was “terrified and traumatized” by fears of what would happen to transgender people under the second Trump administration.
“Our argument is that s[he] was in a diminished mental state,” Jacob said.
Investigators said they found a folding knife, two homemade firebombs and a lighter in English’s possession at the Capitol.
English, of South Deerfield, Massachusetts, told police that he was influenced by Luigi Mangione, the man who was charged with fatally shooting the CEO of UnitedHealthcare. He said he was “on a mission” and “had been thinking about this for a while because of Luigi Mangione,” prosecutors said. English told officers that he was terminally ill and “wanted to do something before I go,” according to prosecutors.
English also said he 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 his target to Bessent after reading an internet post about his confirmation hearing, police said.
Jacob said English’s actions last year were “a cry for help.”
“There was no indication that s[he] was acting rationally that day,” the judge said.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press.
