WASHINGTON — A South Deerfield resident who told police that she brought an incendiary device to the U.S. Capitol to kill Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was sentenced on Tuesday to just over six years in prison.
Riley English, 26, said she was in the grips of a mental health crisis and abusing drugs when she drove to Washington in January 2025 and told police that she was there to kill Bessent on the day of his Senate confirmation.
“I never wanted to hurt anyone,” she told U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras. “I’m not a political person. I’m not a violent person.”
Contreras sentenced English to six years and one month of imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release. English has remained jailed since her arrest and will get credit for the nearly 20 months that she has already spent in custody. She pleaded guilty in March to the unlawful receipt, possession and/or transfer of a firearm; and carrying a firearm, dangerous weapon, explosive or incendiary device on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol.
“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 her 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.”
Bessent added that English had arrived in Washington two hours before the vote on his nomination to be secretary, and that the incident had devastated his children and their perception of his work.
“My family’s move to Washington, D.C. was immediately marred by this senseless act of violence. My children will never experience Washington the way most children do — as a place of history, beauty and public service. Instead, my young children’s first memories of this city are forever tied to this attempt on my life. They have been robbed of their innocence,” Bessent wrote. “Rather than seeing this as the place where their father answered the call to serve, they will now associate it with the terrifying realization that their father could have been taken from them because of that service. No child should have to live with the fear of losing a parent to an act of violence, yet that fear has become an inevitable part of my children’s daily lives. More importantly, it was an attack on the childhoods of all senior government officials’ families.”
English’s prosecution drew comparisons to the case against California resident Sophie Roske, who was sentenced last October to more than 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 transgender 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 like herself under the second Trump administration.
“Our argument is that she was in a diminished mental state,” Jacob said.
In court documents, Jacob further explained that English was struggling with personal tragedies. Since being in custody, Jacob wrote that English has stabilized, rebuilt familial relationships and developed a desire to pursue a career in the culinary arts. Jacob requested a sentence of no more than 20 months of incarceration, which English had already served.
“Ms. English had a challenging upbringing. She knew from a young age that she was transgender but was not able to be herself because of her home environment and her parents’ religious beliefs that prevented them from supporting their child in the way that she needed. Her lack of family support and decline in her physical and mental health led to an unstable life prior to her arrest in the instant matter. When the current administration announced its anti-transgender agenda, Ms. English’s instability took a further decline,” Jacob wrote. “Then, the unimaginable happened — her significant other committed suicide.”
Investigators said they found a folding knife with a 3.5-inch blade, two homemade Molotov cocktails — a device that typically consists of a bottle filled with a flammable liquid that the owner lights and throws at a target — and a lighter in English’s possession at the Capitol. English had with her two bottles of Absolut vodka with gray cloth stuck to their tops.
While searching English’s vehicle, officers also found a 750-milliliter Smirnoff vodka bottle and a gray sweatshirt with cloth missing from the sleeves.
English told authorities that she was influenced by Luigi Mangione, the man who was charged with fatally shooting the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson. She said she was “on a mission” and “had been thinking about this for a while because of Luigi Mangione,” prosecutors said.
English also said she 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 her target to Bessent after learning about his confirmation hearing, police said.
Jacob said English’s actions last year were “a cry for help.”
“There was no indication that she was acting rationally that day,” the judge said.