Riley English, a 26-year-old transgender woman from Massachusetts who told police she brought homemade firebombs to the U.S. Capitol intending to kill Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, was sentenced on Tuesday to just over six years in prison.

English said she was in the grip of a mental health crisis and abusing drugs when she drove to Washington in January 2025 and told Capitol Police she had come to kill Bessent on the day of his Senate confirmation. Bessent, a hedge fund manager who founded Key Square Group after serving as chief investment officer at Soros Fund Management, was confirmed in a 68-29 Senate vote on the day English arrived at the Capitol.

"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, who was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Barack Obama, 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 receive credit for the nearly 20 months she has already spent in custody. She pleaded guilty in March to two weapons charges.

"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. Contreras said English's plan to harm Bessent had an "exceedingly low or non-existent" chance of success, noting that Bessent was not at the Capitol when English arrived on Jan. 27, 2025, and that the Molotov cocktails she brought appeared to be incapable of igniting.

Prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of 10 years and one month. 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 United States.

"This was not a chance encounter or an impulsive act," Horan said.

The case 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."

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. Roske was arrested outside the house in June 2022 after calling 911 on himself and telling operators he was suicidal and had a firearm nearby.

Defense attorney Maria Jacob said English was "terrified and traumatized" by fears about what would happen to transgender people under the second Trump administration.

"Our argument is that she was in a diminished mental state," Jacob said, later describing English's actions as "a cry for help."

"There was no indication that she was acting rationally that day," the judge said.

Investigators said they found a folding knife, two homemade firebombs and a lighter in English's possession at the Capitol. English, of South Deerfield, Massachusetts, told police she was influenced by Luigi Mangione, the man charged with fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a sidewalk outside a Manhattan hotel in December 2024. Thompson's killing unleashed a wave of online anger at health insurers and turned Mangione into a figure of celebration for some on the internet. She said she was "on a mission" and "had been thinking about this for a while because of Luigi Mangione," prosecutors said. English also told officers she was terminally ill and "wanted to do something before I go," according to prosecutors.

According to police, English 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. She said she changed her target to Bessent after reading an internet post about his confirmation hearing.

Source: Fortune