According to a court filing on Tuesday, a Massachusetts man was arrested for weapons charges on Monday after visiting the U.S. Capitol. He told police he wanted top Republicans killed, including billionaire Scott Bessent, the day before the Senate confirmed Bessent as President Donald Trump’s Treasury Secretary.
Ryan Michael English, 24, from South Deerfield, Massachusetts, was apprehended at the Capitol after he approached officers, claiming to have knives and Molotov cocktails and wishing to surrender, according to a Capitol police officer’s affidavit. Authorities discovered a folding knife, two homemade firebombs, and a lighter on him.
The affidavit states that English told police he had come there to kill Bessent.
Bessent was confirmed by the Senate on a vote of 68 to 29, with 16 Democrats voting for the South Carolina resident.

Police said that when they searched English’s vehicle, they found materials for making an explosive device at home.
Police said that English told them he had traveled from Massachusetts to Washington, D.C., to kill other Republican politicians — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, and to burn down the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
The affidavit states, “These actions were taken specifically to ‘depose,’ these political positions and send a clear message.”
English changed his target to Bessent after reading an internet post about his confirmation hearing, according to police.
The arrest was made on charges of receiving, possessing, or transferring a weapon in an unlawful manner, and carrying a gun, explosives, or an incendiary on Capitol grounds.
The court records do not list an attorney. The phone message left for a possible relative of English has not been returned yet.