Man Who Identifies As Woman Arrested After Reported ‘Mission’ To Kill Treasury Secretary

On Monday, a man who apparently claims to be a woman was arrested in Washington, D.C., after reportedly intending to murder Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent.

Ryan Michael English, 24, who prefers to be called Riley Jane English according to his attorney, told officers of plans to come to Washington, D.C., and kill Bessent. English was arrested while transporting Molotov cocktails. According to WWLP, police said English intended to kill top Republicans in the Trump administration, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), but changed his “mission” to kill Bessent “after reading an internet post about a confirmation hearing.” Bessent is the highest ranking openly-gay official in the Trump administration.

“Police allege her intentions in Washington included burning down the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank,” WWLP reported, adding that the police report stated English’s actions were “specifically to ‘depose’ these political offices and send a message.”

English reportedly claimed to have a congenital heart defect and only had months to live, WUSA9 reported. The detention memo quoted English as saying, “I didn’t have a plan in my mind. I felt like I had to do this. I felt like I was on a mission… Maybe I told myself to have faith and just see where this goes and I had been thinking about for this for a while because of Luigi Mangione. I have seen the response to that and that situation… It was not an everyday thing and it extremely shook up everything.”

Assistant federal public defender Maria Jacob contended that English should be released, noting English had no criminal history and had only shown “poor judgment in effectuating a protest,” adding, “Ms. English took no action to use the items she possessed and instead immediately presented herself to an officer.”

Mangione, 26, has been accused of assassinating UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in early December. Later that month, he pled not guilty to state charges of murder and terrorism. He also faces federal charges of stalking and murder, which makes him eligible for the death penalty. Only days before that, roughly 100 supporters of Mangione gathered outside the courthouse brandishing signs reading, “Free Luigi,” “Private Healthcare Is A Crime Against Humanity,” and “Deny, Defend, Depose.”

Related: Luigi Mangione Pleads Not Guilty To Murder And Terror Charges