A Massachusetts resident went to the U.S. Capitol to kill members of President Donald Trump’s cabinet was influenced by Luigi Mangione, the man charged with fatally shooting the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, prosecutors said in a court filing.
Ryan Michael English, who goes by Riley English, was arrested Monday and remained in custody after an initial court appearance on Thursday. English didn’t immediately challenge the pretrial detention, court records show.
A Trantifa militant radicalized by @Reddit named Ryan Michael "Riley Jane" English has been federally charged for allegedly trying to kill members of Trump cabinet and/or burn down a conservative think tank.
— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) January 30, 2025
From Massachusetts, English traveled to the capital on Jan. 27 and… pic.twitter.com/X2cLXqbaxN
English, 24, of South Deerfield, Massachusetts, was “on a mission” and “had been thinking about for this for a while because of Luigi Mangione,” prosecutors said.
Mangione pleaded not guilty in December to state murder and terror charges in a Manhattan court.
“I pushed that away because I was thinking like that is so stupid, that accomplishes nothing, that poor kid just threw his life away for like a minute of vengeance,” English said, according to prosecutors.
English was arrested on weapons charges after approaching police at the Capitol—the same site as the 2021 homicide that killed Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt.
The unhinged ‘Trantifa’ activist claimed to have gone there in order to kill billionaire investor Scott Bessent on the day that the Senate confirmed him as Trump’s treasury secretary, according to a Tuesday court filing.
Investigators said they found a folding knife, two homemade firebombs and a lighter in English’s possession.
English also claimed to have traveled from Massachusetts to Washington, D.C., 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, according to police.
English changed the target to Bessent, a former top financial adviser to billionare left-wing oligarch George Soros, after reading an internet post about his confirmation hearing, police said.
Ryan Michael English, a man pretending to be a woman, was arrested at the US Capitol for allegedly attempting to kiII United States Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent.
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 30, 2025
English also had expressed an intention to kill Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth, Speaker Mike Johnson, and… pic.twitter.com/7BXWYhuxpi
English, who claimed to be terminally ill, “wanted to do something before I go,” according to prosecutors.
“The criminal conduct for which she [sic] is before the Court is not a momentary lapse in judgment; rather, it was a premeditated and calculated attempt to commit violence,” the prosecutors wrote, referring to English by female pronouns even as the Trump administration issued an order that federal employees discontinue a Biden administration practice of removing so-called preferred pronouns from their official emails.
Defense attorney Maria Jacob said English only went to the Capitol “as a cry for help” and didn’t intend to harm anybody.
“She [sic] was not aggressive when she approached the Capitol Police Officers,” Jacob wrote. “She never brandished any of the items as weapons and assisted police to retrieve the items on her person immediately.”
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
