US Capitol Police arrested an unhinged man with knives and Molotov cocktails who allegedly intended to kill House Speaker Mike Johnson as well as Trump cabinet appointees Pete Hegseth and Scott Bessent.
The man, identified in court documents as Ryan English, traveled from Massachusetts to Washington to carry out the fiendish plot, but wound up turning himself in to a Capitol Police officer by the building’s south door on Monday, the documents reveal.
Officers found a folding knife as well as a pair of “destructive devices” in his jacket pockets.
“The destructive devices were constructed of 50-milliliter bottles of Absolut brand vodka with a grey cloth affixed to its top. A green BIC brand lighter was also recovered from [his] pants’ pocket,” prosecutors said.
Upon searching English’s car, cops found a “750-milliliter bottle of Smirnoff 100-proof vodka and a grey sweatshirt with cloth cut from the sleeves,” which prosecutors noted was the same cloth he had allegedly attached to the completed incendiary devices.
Prosecutors allege English copped to initially planning to kill only Johnson and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, “and/or” burn down the headquarters of conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation.
However, while taking a pit stop in Chevy Chase, Maryland on his way to DC, he learned Scott Bessent was set to be confirmed as Treasury Secretary on Monday and altered his plan.
English allegedly told officers he quickly realized upon arriving at the Capitol that it was unlikely he’d be able to get close enough to Bessent to carry out his murder scheme, but then “expressed acceptance and content with the possibility of suicide by cop,” the documents state.
He was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and carrying a dangerous weapon on the grounds of the Capitol.
