Chicago man charged with threatening to shoot Trump, Barron, and Secret Service agents

A 29-year-old Chicago man faces federal charges after allegedly using the official White House website to threaten President Donald Trump, his son Barron Trump, and Secret Service agents, including a message vowing to buy a concealed firearm and shoot up an agent's workplace, according to a newly unsealed criminal complaint.

Michael Kovco was arrested on April 3 and charged with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce. Federal prosecutors are seeking to keep him behind bars pending trial. A detention hearing was scheduled for Friday in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

If convicted, Kovco faces up to five years in federal prison. The charge stems from a string of messages prosecutors say he sent electronically in March, escalating in severity after Secret Service agents showed up at his door.

The messages that triggered the investigation

Kovco first drew the attention of federal agents on March 17, when he allegedly sent a message through the White House website. The contents of that initial message were enough to prompt a visit from Secret Service agents two days later.

On March 19, agents went to Kovco's Chicago apartment but did not find him home. Someone at the residence told agents that Kovco was not taking his prescribed medication, was unemployed, and rarely left the apartment, court documents state.

What happened next made things far worse. Roughly two hours after agents visited his home, prosecutors say Kovco sent a new message, this one far more explicit and menacing:

"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."

Kovco allegedly sent five more messages that same day. Prosecutors say the threats extended beyond the agents themselves. In one message, Kovco allegedly referred to himself as "Mr. I'm going to [expletive] kill your child Kovco." In another, he allegedly wrote that he would find Barron Trump "in NYC or DC or wherever."

The complaint also describes what prosecutors characterized as a sniper-style threat directed at President Trump.

IP address traced to Kovco's home

Federal investigators matched the IP address used to send the threatening messages to the home Kovco shares with two other adults. The messages also included a phone number and email address, prosecutors said, details that helped agents tie the communications directly to him.

The case did not end with the March messages. Prosecutors allege Kovco sent a separate threat on August 18 through the Central Intelligence Agency's public website. The complaint does not detail the contents of that message, but its inclusion in the charging documents suggests a pattern of escalating conduct across multiple federal platforms.

The criminal complaint was unsealed in U.S. District Court in Chicago, and the Justice Department published a press release confirming the charge.

Federal officials respond

U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros made clear that threats against the president and his family will not be treated as idle talk. Boutros said any such threat "will be dealt with as the serious federal crime that it is."

Secret Service Special Agent-in-Charge Dai Tran said the agency pursues threats "aggressively" to ensure the safety of those under its protection. The speed of the response, agents at Kovco's door within two days of the first message, suggests the agency took the threat seriously from the start.

That kind of swift federal enforcement stands in contrast to the broader political environment, where the White House has had to work around institutional resistance on everything from border security to agency funding.

The case also arrives during a period of heightened security concerns around the Trump family. President Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and Barron Trump have maintained a visible public profile, including appearances at major events such as the November 2024 election night gathering at the Palm Beach Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida.

A pattern of threats against the Trump family

Threats against sitting presidents are nothing new, but the specificity and volume of Kovco's alleged messages, targeting not just the president but his son by name, and explicitly threatening to arm himself, place this case in a more dangerous category. Prosecutors are not treating it as the work of a harmless crank. They want Kovco held without bail.

The detail about Kovco's medication and isolation, relayed by someone at his residence, adds another dimension. It does not excuse the conduct. But it raises questions about how many similar individuals are sending threats through government websites, and how many slip through before agents can respond.

The political climate around the Trump family has drawn scrutiny on multiple fronts, from congressional hearings backed by the first lady to ongoing media controversies over access and coverage.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department under the current administration has signaled a harder line on threats to public officials. The Kovco case will test whether that posture holds through the court process, or whether the system treats these threats as something less than what they plainly are.

Several open questions remain. The complaint does not reveal a motive. It is unclear how many total threatening messages Kovco allegedly sent across all dates, or what exactly he wrote in the CIA submission. The full text of the alleged threats against Barron Trump and the sniper-style threat against the president have not been publicly released beyond the excerpts in the complaint.

What is clear: a man allegedly threatened to buy a gun, track down a Secret Service agent's family, and hunt the president's son across multiple cities. And he allegedly did it using the government's own websites.

The security environment around the president and his family has been a recurring concern, and cases like this one show why.

Boutros and Tran both struck the right tone. Threats like these deserve exactly one response: handcuffs and a courtroom. The question isn't whether Kovco deserves the benefit of the doubt. It's whether the system that caught him is catching everyone else who thinks a government contact form is a safe place to issue a death threat.

The Trump family's public visibility makes them a target. Federal law exists for exactly this reason, and it's good to see it enforced without apology.

When a man threatens to arm himself and hunt down a president's child, the only proper answer is a cell and a trial. Credit to the agents who moved fast. Now let the courts finish the job.