Person convicted in plot to assassinate US Treasury chief gets over 6 years in prison

A person convicted in a plot to assassinate US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was sentenced Tuesday to more than six years in prison, US Attorney Jeanine Pirro said.

Ryan Michael English, 24, of South Deerfield, Massachusetts, who goes by Raleigh Jane English, confessed to the plot to US Capitol Police outside the Capitol on Jan. 27, 2025.

Officers found two bottles of "improvised Molotov cocktails" and a knife during a search, according to a US Capitol Police report.

The US Attorney's Office said English told officers that he planned to kill a Cabinet nominee whose confirmation vote was scheduled for that day.

The Senate later confirmed Bessent as Treasury secretary.

English also told officers he planned to burn down a think tank based in Washington, DC, according to US Attorney's Office.

"My office will not tolerate attempts to intimidate or harm public officials," Pirro wrote on US social media company X.

"The attempt to attack Secretary Scott Bessent was an attack on the democratic process itself and is antithetical to the values we all depend on," she said.

"The defendant is now a convicted felon and is headed where he belongs: prison."

Judge Rudolph Contreras sentenced English to 73 months in prison and three years of supervised release after English pleaded guilty in May. Prosecutors had sought a 10-year sentence.