A criminal who carried a homemade incendiary device with the intention of assassinating the United States Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, at the U.S. Capitol building in January last year has been sentenced to more than six years in prison on Tuesday, August 18th.
The perpetrator, 26-year-old Ryan Michael English from South Deerfield, Massachusetts, who also goes by the female name Raleigh Jane English after undergoing gender transition, was convicted for the attempted assassination plot and sentenced to six years and one month of imprisonment by a federal judge in the District of Columbia.
According to court documents, on the afternoon of January 27, 2025, English went to the Capitol building attempting to use Molotov cocktails to carry out the assassination of then Treasury Secretary nominee Bessent. He also brought a folding knife into the Capitol building area. When he approached the south entrance of the Capitol building and was questioned by a Capitol police officer, he confessed to the assassination plot and uttered, “I want to surrender.” Subsequently, two makeshift incendiary devices and a knife were found on his person.
English later pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras, admitting to charges including unlawful receipt, possession, and/or transfer of firearms, as well as carrying firearms, dangerous weapons, explosives, or incendiary devices in the U.S. Capitol building area.
Federal prosecutors requested a 121-month prison sentence for English, but the judge sentenced him to 73 months in prison, with an additional three years of supervised release.
English admitted that his purpose in traveling to Washington, D.C. was to kill a government official or burn down a think tank located in the capital. Ultimately, he ended up at the Capitol building with the intention of assassinating a cabinet nominee. That day, the U.S. Senate was conducting a confirmation vote for Treasury Secretary nominee Bessent.
In a press release on Tuesday, federal prosecutor Jeanine Pirro stated, “My office will not tolerate attempts to intimidate or harm public officials. These attempts strike at the core of our democratic process and go against the values we all rely on. The defendant is now a convicted felon and is being sent where he belongs: prison.”