At 3:12 p.m. on January 27, 2025 — one week after President Trump retook office — a 26-year-old from South Deerfield, Massachusetts walked up to a U.S. Capitol Police officer near the South Door and said, "I'd like to turn yourself in." In Ryan Michael English's jacket pockets, police found a folding knife, two Molotov cocktails fashioned from 50-milliliter Absolut vodka bottles with gray cloth wicks, and a lighter. More vodka bottles and matching cloth were waiting in the car.
The target was Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
English — who identifies as transgender and goes by Riley Jane English — pleaded guilty on March 26 to two federal counts: unlawful receipt, possession, and transfer of a firearm, and carrying a firearm, dangerous weapon, or explosive device on U.S. Capitol grounds. The assassination plan wasn't limited to Bessent. English initially considered targeting House Speaker Mike Johnson and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and even contemplated burning down the Heritage Foundation. Bessent became the focus after English saw him discussing the federal minimum wage on a television at a library and decided Bessent's demeanor "got under my skin."
A handwritten note recovered by investigators laid out English's thinking: "This is terrible but I cant do nothing while nazis kill my sisters. Im so sorry for lying and plotting and lying." English also cited Luigi Mangione — charged with fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan in December 2024 — as inspiration, admitting the plot had "been thinking about this for a while because of Luigi Mangione."
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras — an Obama appointee — sentenced English to 73 months in federal prison. That's 6 years and 1 month. DOJ prosecutors asked for a minimum of 10 years. The sentencing guidelines called for 97 to 121 months. The probation department recommended 60 months. The judge landed at 73, plus 3 years of supervised probation after release. With approximately 20 months of time served already credited, English could be walking free in roughly four years.
Judge Contreras acknowledged that "the offense is very serious" but emphasized that "no one was harmed. The plan was basically impossible to succeed, and she turned herself in before it came anywhere near fruition." Basically impossible to succeed. Someone showed up to the U.S. Capitol with improvised firebombs and a knife to kill a cabinet secretary, and the sentencing rationale is that the plan was bad.
U.S. Attorney Pirro struck a different tone, stating, "The defendant is now a convicted felon and is headed where he belongs: prison." English's defense team, meanwhile, requested placement in a female correctional facility. The judge said he'd forward the request to the Bureau of Prisons.
Now consider the media treatment. A person motivated by trans activism showed up armed at the Capitol, confessed to plotting the assassination of a sitting Treasury Secretary, drew inspiration from a high-profile murder, wrote a manifesto referencing political violence — and most Americans couldn't name the defendant if their life depended on it. Conservative Review's Joseph MacKinnon was among the few to give the story the weight it deserved. Reverse every identity in this story and ask yourself how many cable news segments it would fill.
The judge who found the plan "basically impossible" might want to review what "basically impossible" looked like on June 14, 2017, when James Hodgkinson opened fire on a congressional baseball practice and nearly killed Steve Scalise. That plan wasn't sophisticated either. A motivated attacker with crude weapons and proximity to a target doesn't need a brilliant strategy.
English told the court about reconsidering after realizing such actions "accomplish nothing." That's reassuring — after assembling Molotov cocktails, driving to the Capitol, and walking up to within feet of a police officer. The reconsideration happened at the finish line, not the starting blocks.
Seventy-three months for plotting to kill a cabinet secretary of the United States. Prosecutors asked for 121. The guidelines said 97 at minimum. The judge gave 73 and called the plan basically impossible.
That's not a sentence. That's a coupon.
