A 26-year-old Massachusetts woman has been given more than six years in federal prison for planning to kill United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent early last year when he was still a nominee for the position.
Riley English of South Deerfield was sentenced to 73 months behind bars and three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to one count of lawful receipt, possession and/or transfer of a firearm and one count of carrying a dangerous weapon or incendiary device onto the grounds of the U.S. Capitol.
Prosecutors had requested a prison term of 121 months.
“My office will not tolerate attempts to intimidate or harm public officials,” Jeanine Pirro, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, said in a news release announcing the sentence.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, English approached a U.S. Capitol police officer near the Capitol’s south entrance on the afternoon of Jan. 27, 2025, and announced that she wanted to turn herself in, saying she had a knife and a pair of Molotov cocktails.
Officers searched English and found two crudely fashioned incendiary devices consisting of mini-size bottles of Absolut Vodka affixed with grey strips of cloth soaked in alcohol-based hand sanitizer. English also had a folding knife and a lighter, the attorney’s office said.
During the search, English confessed to coming to the Capitol to kill Bessent, whose confirmation vote for the position of U.S. Treasury Secretary was on the verge of taking place in the Senate, the office said.
English’s federal public defender argued that her actions showed she had no intent to injure but were instead “a cry for help” since she didn’t brandish the items as weapons and immediately announced their presence to police upon her arrival.
“She never attempted to use any of the items in a violent manner,” A.J. Kramer wrote. “Instead, she walked calmly up to a Capitol Police Officer and turned herself in.”
According to an affidavit submitted to the court by special agent Peter Campopiano of the U.S. Capitol Police, English had in her pocket a note addressed to a roommate that read, in part: “I am so sorry…. This is terrible but I cant (sic) do nothing while nazis kill my sisters.”
Police also searched English’s car, where they found a 750-milliliter bottle of vodka and a grey sweatshirt with fabric cut from the sleeves.
English admitted traveling to the nation’s capital intending to either kill a government official or burn down the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank and advocacy organization, the affidavit said.
She decided to target Bessent after stopping at a library in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and seeing social media posts about the confirmation hearing, it said.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Woman sentenced in plan to kill US Treasury Secretary nominee
