Massachusetts Man Charged with Attempted Assassination of Cabinet Nominee

That person from Massachusetts was charged this week with trying to kill a cabinet candidate, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Ryan Michael English, 24, was arrested in January for reportedly trying to bring a knife and two homemade Molotov cocktails into the U.S. Capitol to kill Scott Bessent, who was being nominated for Treasury Secretary at the time.

Thursday, English was charged with trying to kill a cabinet candidate and being on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol Building with a dangerous weapon.

English was inspired by United HealthCare CEO murder suspect Luigi Mangione, according to prosecutors. English had also planned to kill House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in the beginning.

English went to court for the first time on Thursday afternoon.

The first charging papers say that English approached a U.S. Capitol Police officer on January 27 and said, “I’d like to turn myself in.”

Court papers say English said he was there “to kill Scott Bessent” and said he had two Molotov cocktails and two knives. Federal officials say English left his home in Massachusetts and went to Washington, D.C., with plans to kill Hegseth (who the suspect called a “Nazi”) and Johnson and set fire to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank near the White House.

Capitol Police searched English’s jacket and found a folding knife and two homemade bombs made of vodka bottles with gray cloth attached to the tops of them.

In another pocket, they found a green lighter.