A 29-year-old Chicago man is behind bars after federal prosecutors charged him with transmitting threats in interstate commerce, accusations built on a series of messages allegedly sent through the official White House and CIA websites that described, in graphic detail, plans to assassinate President Trump, harm his youngest son Barron, and target the Secret Service agent who came to investigate.
Michael Kovco was arrested last week and appeared in federal court on Friday, where a judge ordered him held in custody pending trial. The charge carries serious weight. And the language in the alleged messages, as laid out in the federal criminal complaint reported by CBS News Chicago, leaves little ambiguity about intent.
The case traces back to March 17, when Kovco allegedly submitted a message through the White House website threatening to kill President Trump and Barron Trump. The message identified its sender as "Mr. I'm going to f***ing kill your child Kovco" and included Kovco's own telephone number and email address.
Two days later, on March 19, a Secret Service agent visited Kovco's home to investigate. What followed, according to the charges, was not silence or cooperation, but escalation. Kovco allegedly fired off another message to the White House website, this one targeting the agent directly:
"I'm gonna hunt the secret service agent that comes to my door's family so he better not tell me any identifying information at all like first or last name or pet name or address or place of work because im going to buy a small concealable firearm and go shoot up his place of work immediately if he tells me anything."
That was not the only message Kovco allegedly sent on March 19. In additional submissions to the White House website the same day, he reportedly described plans to acquire a high-caliber assault rifle and plant improvised explosive devices around Washington, D.C. One message, per the charges, stated plainly:
"I'm going to leave improvised explosive devices which i do not currently have the means to manufacture but can purchase with relatively little resources and assemble with relatively little effort at some point in the future as a puntive action against any secret service agent who comes to respond to these clear and apparent threats."
Another message went further still, referencing a sniper attack on the White House grounds:
"I'm going to take a serrated knife and saw Barron Trump's head off after I successfully stake out the president of the united states with a high caliber sniper rifle permanently aimed at the White House Lawn from a local vantage point. I have absolutely every intent of plotting and carrying out an active assassination attempt against the President of the United States of America. This is a serious threat."
The messages included Kovco's email address and phone number. He was not hiding.
When investigators returned to Kovco's home later on March 19, a person they encountered in the hallway told them Kovco was unemployed, off his medication, and rarely left his home. Agents spoke to Kovco directly. His first response was brief: "It wasn't me."
That denial did not hold long. Kovco then allegedly told the investigators: "Ok, I posted four more. I'm gonna get money from you're a**. Go check it out."
The threats against the president and his family are alarming on their own. But the explicit targeting of the Secret Service agent assigned to investigate, threatening to track down the agent's family, buy a concealed firearm, and attack the agent's workplace, adds a distinct layer. It is one thing to send vile messages to a government website. It is another to promise retaliation against the law enforcement officers who respond.
The Trump family has faced real danger before. Ivanka Trump has publicly described watching the assassination attempt on her father unfold on live television, a reminder that threats against the president are not abstract.
The case did not end in March. According to the charges, Kovco sent yet another threatening message, this time to the CIA's public website, in August 2025. In that submission, he again allegedly threatened to kill President Trump:
"I am plotting to kill the president of the united states in an ambush with a heavy caliber anti material rifle. Please make a clear line of fire from the white house to marine one on the presidents next departure from the garden."
That message also included his email address and phone number.
When Secret Service agents questioned Kovco about the CIA-website message, he shifted his story. He claimed someone else could have posted it using his contact information. He said he had sold the phone associated with that number months earlier. Agents checked with a store manager, who told them the store does not buy phones from people, undercutting Kovco's account.
One of the March 19 messages referenced a personal grievance: Kovco allegedly wrote that he would continue "until I get justice for my rape from the US government." No further detail about that claim appears in the charges.
Kovco now faces one count of transmitting threats in interstate commerce. At his first court appearance Friday, a federal judge ordered him to remain in custody while he awaits trial.
The charges do not indicate whether investigators recovered any weapons or explosive materials from Kovco's home. No defense attorney has been publicly identified in connection with the case. Whether the August CIA-website threat was charged separately or folded into the same case remains unclear from the available court documents.
Federal law enforcement agencies responsible for presidential protection operate under enormous pressure, and recent debates over DHS leadership have only highlighted the stakes. The Secret Service, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, must sort genuine threats from noise, and act before the worst happens.
Cases like this test that system. Kovco's alleged messages were not vague. They named specific weapons, specific targets, specific methods, and specific locations. He included his own contact information. When confronted, he first denied it, then apparently boasted about posting more.
This is also not the only recent federal arrest involving sensitive government security matters. A former Delta Force member was recently arrested for leaking classified secrets, and a former Biden White House security staffer faces manslaughter charges in a separate case, reminders that the federal security apparatus faces threats from multiple directions.
The timeline raises a fair question: Kovco allegedly sent his first threat on March 17. The Secret Service visited his home on March 19 and heard him acknowledge posting additional threats. He was not arrested until months later, after yet another threat surfaced in August. What happened in between?
That gap deserves scrutiny. When someone sends graphic, specific threats against the president, names his child, threatens to build explosives, and promises to target the investigating agent's family, and then does it again months later through a different government website, the system's response time matters.
A federal judge clearly saw enough to hold Kovco without bail. The question is whether the months-long gap between the first threats and the arrest reflects careful investigation or something slower.
Threats against a sitting president are not political speech. They are not protest. They are federal crimes, and they should be treated that way, swiftly, seriously, and without excuses. The court will sort out Michael Kovco's guilt or innocence. But the public has every right to expect that when someone sends a message promising to saw off a president's son's head, the response does not take five months.