Trans suspect sentenced for chilling plot to kill Treasury chief Scott Bessent

WASHINGTON,DC: A Massachusetts man who walked onto the US Capitol grounds carrying two homemade cocktails and a knife has been sentenced to more than six years in federal prison on Tuesday, August 18.

The development comes after he admitted intention to kill Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Ryan Michael English, also identified in federal records as Riley Jane English, pleaded guilty earlier this year after telling police he had come to Washington with an assassination plan.

English sentenced to 73 months in prison

The disturbing details emerged after English approached a US Capitol Police officer near the building's South Door on January 27, 2025 and said he wanted to turn himself in.

The 24-year-old was carrying a folding knife and two improvised incendiary devices.

Investigators said the weapons had been made from small alcohol bottles fitted with strips of cloth treated with hand sanitizer. A lighter was also found on him.

When officers questioned him, English allegedly made his intentions unmistakably clear.

He said he had come to the Capitol because he wanted to kill a Cabinet nominee whose Senate confirmation vote was scheduled that day.

Court records say he specifically identified Bessent as his intended target.

English also acknowledged that he had traveled to Washington with the intention of killing a government official or setting fire to a Washington think tank.

Investigators later searched his vehicle, where they found a larger bottle of alcohol and a sweatshirt whose sleeves had been cut, adding to the evidence surrounding the construction of the incendiary devices.

A note recovered from English's pocket also offered a glimpse into the thinking behind the plot.

In it, English referred to Nazis allegedly killing his sisters and apologized to a roommate for lying and plotting.

Despite prosecutors seeking a sentence of at least 121 months, Judge Rudolph Contreras sentenced English to 73 months in federal prison. He will also serve three years of supervised release.

Shocking rise in political violence

The English case is unfolding against a backdrop of increasingly serious political violence in the United States, with attacks and assassination attempts involving prominent political figures including President Trump.

One of the most consequential incidents came on July 13, 2024, when then-presidential candidate Donald Trump was shot during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. 

The FBI identified 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the gunman.

Crooks opened fire from a rooftop, striking Trump in the ear.

Just two months later, Trump faced another apparent assassination attempt, this time at his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on September 15, 2024.

Suspect Ryan Wesley Routh was arrested after US Secret Service agents after he carried a rifle near the boundary of Donald Trump's Florida golf course on September 15, 2024(Facebook/Ryan Routh)

Ryan Wesley Routh, then 58, was arrested after a Secret Service agent spotted a rifle barrel protruding from shrubbery near the course. Routh was subsequently federally charged and ultimately convicted on all five counts brought against him. 

Then came the September 10, 2025, killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.

Kirk was speaking to a crowd when he was shot at from a nearby rooftop. 

Tyler James Robinson, 22, was arrested and charged on several counts.

Robinson has not pleaded guilty and his defense is currently fighting the prosecution's effort to seek the death penalty. 

On April 25, WHCD shooting sent Trump rushing to safety as suspect Cole Allen allegedly stormed security armed with weapons.