Trans woman who sought to kill Scott Bessent considered ‘ramming car,’ ‘driving’ knife into Trump

In the filing, the DOJ said that Ryan Michael English, also known as "Riley Jane English" and referred to by she/her pronouns in the document, bought an atlas around one month prior to the January 27 arrest. The atlas was bought with cash, and English wore "clothes to conceal the Defendant’s appearance and left any cell phone at home to avoid surveillance." The atlas was allegedly purchased to "navigate Washington, DC, given that the Defendant knew she would not have a phone with GPS capability.

English "purposefully left her mobile phone at home in Massachusetts so that the Defendant’s travel and whereabouts could not be surveilled. English traveled to DC on January 26 "with the intention of killing the 'Nazi' Secretary of Defense, and/or the Speaker of the House, and/or burning down a think tank based in Washington, DC" staying overnight at a New Jersey rest stop.

English altered "the Defendant’s target" after viewing Reddit posts mentioning the confirmation hearing of Bessent, who later Monday was confirmed as Secretary of State.

English surveilled the Capitol for over an hour, walking "loops around the grounds," and telling authorities after the arrest that "the Defendant surmised that the Defendant would have to kill, 'at least,' three US Capitol Police officers to get to the nominee and kill him." English "expressed acceptance and content with the possibility of suicide by cop."

A handwritten note was found on the back of a receipt in English’s pocket, which stated, "Judith dear god I am so sorry. You must understand I can feel myself dying slowly [because] of my heart. This is terrible but I cant do nothing while nazis kill my sisters. I love you. This is awful. Im [sic] so sorry. I love u. Please stay alive and heal. [Y]ou can. [Y]ou are strong enough. F*ck them for pushing us so far. you dont [sic] deserve this. Im [sic] so sorry for lying and plotting and lying. Please survive [7 hearts]."

Also written on English’s arms were the phrases "no future no choice" and "there is only one Earth."

In a custodial interview that took place on January 27, English told officers that English had a congenital heart defect and had four months to live, and that "pretty much the words on my arms say everything" when asked what had brought English to DC.

English told officers, "I’d been thinking about this for a while, not this specifically I’d just been thinking about doing good and being good," and "I didn’t have a plan when I came down here. I've been wanting to devote my life…I’ve always wanted to live for other people… My life doesn’t mean anything anymore the only thing I can do is help other people."

English also mentioned Luigi Mangione, who was arrested in December for the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, 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. 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. Vengeance is bullshit, no one feels good about that. I cannot see an average, ordinary person hurting someone else and feeling good about it and I know that’s extremely naive, especially how he did it. It’s some guy he never met before, he shot him in the back of the head- you can’t feel proud about that. He’s probably questioning his humanity every single day. But as time goes on and as time went on, I started to understand things differently in my own personal situation, not regarding Luigi, regarding mainly the foremost thing is time—the feeling of running out of time, but of holy shit it’s me ... I don’t think I’m the Messiah or anything … It’s fate, it’s destiny, it’s whatever you want to call it.”

The DOJ said that English’s "recent conduct demonstrates an escalation in criminal behavior."

In the custodial interview, English outlined plans to burn down a think tank in Washington DC, and how English was "planning on getting there, asking and pretending" that English had been corresponding with someone for an internship, "just thinking of ways to meet [Individual-1] so that I could kill [Individual-1] by slitting that person’s throat. "I was going to go and do that, and if not that I was planning on burning down the building."

English also said that these plans had failed, "I was going to slit my wrists on the White House steps."

"So, that’s what I was going to do. I was gonna hurt big players. I really had such faith, that I was expecting to bump into someone who I would recognize and go for it. I was thinking, Trump’s in LA right now for the fires, maybe I’ll catch him on the way back, ram my car into him and just drive my knife into him and then just die in the process."

The DOJ noted that English "did not merely think about a plan to kill the nominee; rather, the Defendant took multiple significant steps towards carrying out such a plan." The filing later added, "Defendant’s statements during the custodial interview reflect a recklessness that demonstrates that no condition or combination of conditions would be sufficient to assure the safety of the community," and therefore English should be detained pending trial.