A 26-year-old transgender woman from South Deerfield, Massachusetts, was sentenced on Tuesday to six years and one month in federal prison for her attempt to bring homemade firebombs to the U.S. Capitol with stated intentions to kill Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Riley English, who has remained incarcerated since her arrest, was credited with nearly 20 months of time served and will face an additional three years of supervised release following her imprisonment.
English told Capitol police that she arrived at the Capitol on January 27, 2025, during the day of Bessent’s Senate confirmation hearing. According to investigators, English possessed a folding knife, two homemade firebombs, and a lighter upon her arrest. The judge noted that the Molotov cocktails appeared incapable of igniting and that the overall plan held an “exceedingly low or non-existent” chance of success. No injuries occurred during the incident, and Bessent was not present at the Capitol when English arrived.
English’s defense team argued she was experiencing a mental health crisis and substance abuse issues, contending she was “terrified and traumatized” by concerns about policies affecting transgender individuals. The defendant herself stated she was not a violent or politically motivated person and claimed to be in a diminished mental state during the time of the incident. U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras acknowledged her difficult life circumstances and expressed hope that her time in custody had set her on an improved path.
Prosecutors countered that the plan represented a deliberate “attempted political assassination” rather than an impulsive act, contending English had been planning the incident for at least a month. They recommended a sentence of 10 years and one month. English stated she was influenced by Luigi Mangione and had considered targeting other Republican figures, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and House Speaker Mike Johnson, before deciding to focus on Bessent after reading about his confirmation hearing.
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