{
  "id": 1790894,
  "title": "US woman sentenced to six years in prison over plot to kill treasury secretary",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/18/us-woman-sentenced-to-six-years-in-prison-over-plot-to-kill-treasury",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-08-18T19:48:41.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Guardian US",
    "slug": "the-guardian-us",
    "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/18/riley-english-sentenced-scott-bessent"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A transgender woman, Riley English, has been sentenced to nearly six years in prison for an alleged plot to assassinate US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. English, a 26-year-old from Massachusetts, claimed she was suffering from a mental health crisis and drug abuse when she brought homemade firebombs to the US Capitol on January 27, 2025, intending to kill Bessent during his Senate confirmation hearing. However, investigators found that the Molotov cocktails English brought were incapable of igniting, making her plan highly unlikely to succeed.\n\nContreras, the presiding judge, stated that English had a difficult life and had made progress in jail, hoping her transformation would lead to a better future. Though English expressed remorse for her actions, she maintained that she was not a political or violent person. Prosecutors had initially recommended a sentence of 10 years and one month due to the severity of the crime.\n\nEnglish's defense argued that she was in a diminished mental state due to her fears of what would happen to transgender people under the second Trump administration. The judge acknowledged that English's actions were a \"cry for help\" and that there was no indication she was acting rationally at the time.",
  "summary": "Riley English said she was in the grips of a mental health crisis and abusing drugs, and that she planned to kill Scott Bessent A Massachusetts woman who told police that she brought homemade firebombs to the US Capitol to kill Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, was sentenced on Tuesday to just over six years in prison. Riley English, a 26-year-old transgender woman, said she was in the…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}