A Massachusetts man was arrested on the grounds of the US Capitol Monday in a bizarre attempt on the lives of Speaker Mike Johnson, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Ryan English, 24, approached Capitol Police officers at the Capitol’s South Front at 3 p.m. and told them he wished to turn himself in and confessed to having traveled to DC to kill the three men.
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Peter Campopiano, a U.S. Capitol Police special agent, wrote in the affidavit that English walked up to an officer near the Capitol’s South Front shortly after 3 p.m. Monday and said, “I’d like to turn myself in.” He told the officer that he was carrying several knives and two molotov cocktails, according to the affidavit.
When officers searched English, they found a folding knife and two bottles of Absolut Vodka, each with a “grey piece of cloth affixed to its top,” the affidavit says. It says English told officers that he had traveled to Washington initially intending to kill House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth but that he changed his target to the newly confirmed treasury secretary, Scott Bessent.
His planned mode of attack was novel, to say the least.
“English’s thoughts were to use the small bottles of vodka to start fires and later to wrap them in rags soaked in alcohol, light them and throw them at Bessent’s feet,” the affidavit said, adding that Mr. English had also considered stabbing Mr. Bessent if he got close enough.
If convicted, Mr. English would face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison on the unlawful possession charge and up to five years for the possession count.
A note he carried said he planned on killing at least three cops to get close enough to give his targets the hotfoot.
I can’t help but note that English’s potential sentence for plotting to kill three senior US government officials is about what a January 6 defendant got for scrapping with a police officer.
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It would be a shame if federal law enforcement treated this as a one-off event. This is a pattern of behavior among people who have been radicalized and incited by leftist rhetoric. English wanted to kill Hegseth because he was a “Nazi.” He wanted to kill Bessent because he was a billionaire. This is not the first time that Republican politicians have been targets for political assassination. Steve Scalise and the GOP Congressional caucus was targeted for a decapitation strike; Why Is the FBI Whitewashing the Steve Scalise Shooting Into “Workplace Violence” – RedState. The summer of 2020 was a bacchanalia of politically inspired violence. During the 2024 campaign, President Trump was the target of assassins twice. For a fraction of the money paid by the FBI to informers creating bizarre kidnap plots and investigating traditional Catholics as extremists, they might have been able to do some real good if they were watching the violent, politically protected leftists.
