A woman inspired by Luigi Mangione to try bombing Scott Bessent gets hit with 6 years in prison

A Massachusetts woman who told police that she brought homemade firebombs to the U.S.

Capitol to kill Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was sentenced on Tuesday to just over six years in prison.

Riley English, a 26-year-old transgender woman, said she was in the grips of a mental health crisis and abusing drugs when she drove to Washington in January 2025 and told Capitol police that she was there to kill Bessent on the day of his Senate confirmation .

“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 get credit for the nearly 20 months that she already has 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, and Contreras said her plan to harm Bessent had an “exceedingly low or non-existent” chance of success.

Bessent wasn’t at the Capitol when English arrived on Jan.

27, 2025.

The Molotov cocktails that English brought to the Capitol appeared to be incapable of igniting, the judge noted.