A 25-year-old Massachusetts resident who traveled to Washington armed with Molotov cocktails and a knife to kill Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent received a six-year federal prison sentence, well below the decade prosecutors demanded.
Reily Jane English, identified in federal records as Ryan Michael English, stood before U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras on Tuesday in an orange jumpsuit and glasses and heard a sentence of 63 months behind bars plus three years of supervised release. The Justice Department had pushed for at least 10 years. Contreras, an Obama appointee, cut that nearly in half, calling the recommended sentencing range "too high."
English pleaded guilty on March 26 to two federal counts: unlawful possession of a firearm and carrying a dangerous weapon on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol. The charges stem from a January 27, 2025, arrest near the Capitol's South Door, where English approached a police officer at 3:12 p.m. and said simply: "I'd like to turn myself in."
What followed was a blunt confession. English told the officer: "I was going to kill Scott Bessent." The Senate was confirming Bessent as Treasury Secretary that very day.
English spent roughly a month preparing the plot from South Deerfield, Massachusetts. The planning was deliberate. English left phones behind to avoid tracking, used a false identity to research targets at a library, and bought a paper atlas to navigate the route to Washington.
The original targets were not limited to Bessent. English initially considered House Speaker Mike Johnson, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and the Heritage Foundation, which English intended to burn down. The focus shifted after English stopped at a library and saw a television clip of Bessent discussing the federal minimum wage.
English told investigators the clip set off the change in plans. As the Daily Mail reported, English said of Bessent: "He said it with a smile on his face and that got under my skin."
Officers who arrested English recovered two improvised Molotov cocktails, 50-milliliter Absolut vodka bottles fitted with grey cloth strips soaked in hand sanitizer as wicks, along with a folding knife and a green lighter. A search of English's car turned up a larger bottle of 100-proof vodka and a grey sweatshirt with fabric cut from the sleeves, apparently the source of the wick material.
A handwritten note found in English's pocket read in part: "This is terrible but I cant do nothing while nazis kill my sisters...Im so sorry for lying and plotting and lying." English also admitted to investigators that if the plan failed, the backup was suicide on the White House steps.
The threat landscape facing public officials has grown sharply in recent years. Justice Amy Coney Barrett recently told Congress she had to explain bulletproof vests to her own children because of escalating threats against members of the judiciary.
English told investigators the plot drew inspiration from Luigi Mangione, who had shot a health insurance executive in New York City in December 2024, roughly a month before English showed up on Capitol Hill. That admission connects this case to a broader pattern of ideologically charged violence that treats political figures as legitimate targets.
English abandoned the attack before carrying it out, citing concern about bystanders and the visible security presence around the Capitol. English then walked to police and surrendered. That sequence, deliberate planning followed by voluntary surrender, shaped the sentencing debate between prosecutors and the judge.
Threats against officials are not confined to one end of the political spectrum. Separately, Jake Lang was recently arrested and charged with a felony threat after a recorded remark targeting another individual, a reminder that the justice system is fielding cases involving political menace from multiple directions.
The gap between the Justice Department's sentencing demand and what Judge Contreras imposed is the sharpest tension in the case. Prosecutors asked for 10 years. The federal sentencing guidelines recommended 97 to 121 months. Contreras gave English 63 months, roughly five years and three months, and ordered credit for approximately 20 months already served.
Contreras acknowledged the gravity of the offense but framed it with significant caveats.
"No one was harmed. The plan was basically impossible to succeed, and she turned herself in before it came anywhere near fruition."
He then addressed English directly, in language that struck a notably sympathetic tone for a case involving an assassination plot against a sitting Cabinet secretary.
"You've had a very difficult life with a lot of challenges. You're young, you still have a significant portion of your life. Good luck to you."
Contreras also acknowledged that English had been "plagued by mental health problems." The judge deferred the question of whether English, who identifies as a transgender woman, would be placed in a female prison facility, leaving that decision to the Bureau of Prisons.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro struck a harder line. Her office issued a statement that left no room for the sympathy Contreras offered.
"My office will not tolerate attempts to intimidate or harm public officials that strike at the heart of our democratic process and are antithetical to the values we all depend on."
Pirro added bluntly: "The defendant is now a convicted felon and is headed where he belongs: prison." Pirro used a male pronoun to refer to English, a pointed departure from the female pronouns used elsewhere in court proceedings.
Federal investigations into political networks and potential threats continue on multiple fronts. A grand jury in New York recently issued subpoenas targeting a left-wing megadonor's nonprofit network, reflecting the broader federal appetite for accountability across the political spectrum.
English addressed the court before sentencing, asking for leniency in terms that focused entirely on personal circumstances rather than the seriousness of plotting to kill a government official.
"I have a lot on my plate with an upcoming surgery. I want a chance to work and start a family of my own. I'm grateful for the opportunity to get sober and get right in my mind."
The case raises a straightforward question that the sentence does not fully answer: what does accountability look like when someone plans for a month to kill a Cabinet secretary, arms themselves with improvised firebombs and a knife, travels hundreds of miles to the Capitol, and arrives on the very day the target is being confirmed by the Senate?
Contreras credited the voluntary surrender and the fact that no one was hurt. Prosecutors saw a premeditated assassination attempt that warranted a decade behind bars. The judge split the difference, and the result is a sentence that, with credit for time served, could put English back on the street in roughly three and a half years.
Institutional accountability remains a live concern across the federal government. The FBI recently fired analysts who authored a memo treating Catholic faith as a domestic threat marker, a case that underscored how badly federal agencies can misallocate their attention when ideology drives the mission.
When someone plots to kill a sitting Treasury Secretary and walks away with a sentence shorter than many drug offenders receive, the system is sending a message. Whether that message is mercy or weakness depends on how seriously you take the threat, and how seriously you expect the courts to take it.
