A 26-year-old transgender woman from South Deerfield, Massachusetts, was sentenced to six years and one month in federal prison for driving to Washington, D.C., with two homemade firebombs and a plan to kill Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Riley English walked up to a U.S. Capitol Police officer near the South Door of the Capitol on January 27, 2025, at roughly 3:12 p.m. and said, “I'd like to turn myself in,” according to court records. Investigators found a folding knife, two homemade firebombs and a lighter in her possession.
According to ClickOnDetroit, English told police she had driven from Massachusetts to Washington that January specifically to kill Bessent on the day of his Senate confirmation. She had originally intended to target Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and House Speaker Mike Johnson, and had also planned to burn down the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, police say. Bessent was not at the Capitol when English arrived that day. Per police, English changed her target to Bessent only after reading an internet post about his confirmation hearing — a hearing that concluded that same day with the Senate confirming him as Treasury Secretary in a 68-to-29 vote, with 16 Democrats joining Republicans in favor.
A Note, a Mission, and a Guilty Plea
Police recovered a handwritten note in English's pocket addressed to a family member. It read, in part, “This is terrible but I cant do nothing while nazis kill my sisters…Im so sorry for lying and plotting and lying.” Prosecutors said English told them she was on a mission and had been thinking about the plan because of Luigi Mangione, who was charged with fatally shooting the CEO of UnitedHealthcare. Prosecutors also said English told them she believed she was terminally ill and wanted to do something before she died.
English pleaded guilty in March to federal charges of unlawful possession of a firearm and carrying an explosive or incendiary device on Capitol grounds. Federal investigators confirmed her two Molotov cocktails were built from 50-milliliter vodka bottles fitted with hand-sanitizer-soaked cloths. In court, English said she was not a political or violent person, that she never wanted to hurt anyone, and that she had been experiencing a mental health crisis while abusing drugs at the time.
Prosecution Sought a Decade, Judge Imposed Six Years
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan Horan told the court the incident was not a chance encounter or an impulsive act, arguing English had planned an attempted political assassination for at least a month. Prosecutors recommended a sentence of 10 years and one month. Nobody was injured in the incident, and no physical struggle occurred when English approached the officer at the Capitol.
English's defense attorney, Maria Jacob, called her client's actions a cry for help and argued English was in a diminished mental state, terrified and traumatized by fears about transgender people under the second Trump administration. U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras, who was nominated to the federal bench by President Barack Obama, ultimately sentenced English to six years and one month in prison, saying there was no indication she was acting rationally that day. Contreras added that English's plan had an exceedingly low or non-existent chance of success, noting that her Molotov cocktails appeared incapable of igniting. English has remained jailed since her arrest, will receive credit for nearly 20 months already spent in custody, and will serve three years of supervised release afterward.
Bessent Points to the Case as Evidence of Political Violence
Following English's sentencing, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro issued a statement affirming that federal prosecutors will aggressively pursue anyone who threatens or attempts to intimidate public officials, according to the Department of Justice. Bessent himself has repeatedly cited the plot publicly. At a State Department conference in July, as reported by Newsweek, he said he was informed of the plot two hours after taking office and argued the case demonstrates a documented threat of violent far-left political extremism.
Defense filings and the judge's own comments in court paint a different picture — describing a chaotic, non-functional attempt shaped by deep personal trauma and diminished mental capacity rather than a coherent extremist campaign. That contrast in framing has played out publicly even as the case is cited nationally as an example of rising threats against officials.
Part of a Broader Surge in Threats Nationwide
The case lands amid a documented spike in threats against public officials. The U.S. Capitol Police reported investigating 14,938 threat assessment cases involving concerning statements or behavior directed at members of Congress, staff, and the Capitol complex in 2025, up from 9,474 cases the year before, marking a third consecutive annual increase. A federal court record analysis compiled with University of Nebraska researchers and published by CBS News found that 126 individuals were criminally charged in 2025 for threatening federal and top state officials, more than triple the rate of such prosecutions a decade ago.
Separate research released in February by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue found that violent online threats targeting U.S. lawmakers increased more than threefold between 2021 and 2025, with threats against Republican officials surging 364% over that period. A national study released in March by The Impact Project and the Public Service Alliance documented a 2,030% surge in violent threats against public servants at the federal, state, and local levels between 2015 and 2025, underscoring how English's case fits into a much larger pattern federal officials say they are now confronting.
