Ryan Michael English, a 24-year-old Massachusetts man, pleaded guilty in March to federal charges connected to an alleged plot targeting Bessent while he was serving as a Treasury secretary nominee.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealed an attempted attack against him Thursday as he invoked evidence that violent political extremism from the left is a genuine threat, pushing back against critics of the Trump administration’s expanded focus on far-left extremist groups.
Speaking at the State Department’s Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism, Bessent said he had been targeted just hours after taking office and accused some commentators of dismissing the threat. “I’m going to remind everyone in this room, and all the media, that I was the subject of an assassination attempt by an addled left-wing activist two hours after being sworn into my job,” Bessent said. “Any of you who want to report that this is fiction and does not exist, be there for the sentencing this August.”
Bessent was referring to Ryan Michael English, a 24-year-old Massachusetts man who pleaded guilty in March to federal charges connected to an alleged plot targeting Bessent while he was serving as a Treasury secretary nominee. According to the Justice Department, English traveled to Washington on Jan. 27, 2025, carrying a folding knife and two improvised Molotov cocktails. Prosecutors said he approached a U.S. Capitol Police officer and attempted to surrender after arriving at the Capitol.
Investigators said English admitted he had gone to Washington intending to kill a Cabinet nominee whose Senate confirmation vote was scheduled that day or alternatively attack a Washington think tank. Prosecutors also cited a note allegedly recovered from English that referenced opposition to what he described as “nazis” killing his sisters. "Violence requires money, channels through which funding can move, and institutions behind which it can hide,” Bessent said.
The Treasury secretary announced that the department is expanding efforts to identify nonprofit organizations and charitable structures that may be abused for illicit financing. He said Treasury would examine whether tax-exempt organizations have been exploited as “financial conduits for foreign-influence activity” or enabled political violence.
The announcement came as Secretary of State Marco Rubio also warned about what he described as the rise of violent extremist movements operating under political causes. English pleaded guilty to unlawful receipt, possession and transfer of a firearm and carrying a dangerous weapon on Capitol grounds. He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 14.
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