A 29-year-old Chicago man faces federal charges after prosecutors say he used the White House website to threaten President Donald Trump and his son Barron, then escalated to threatening Secret Service agents who came to investigate, all while allegedly including his own phone number and email address in the messages.

Michael Kovco was arrested April 3 and charged with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce, a crime that carries up to five years in federal prison. A newly unsealed criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago details a string of threatening messages sent through official government websites over several months.

Federal prosecutors are seeking to keep Kovco in custody pending trial. A detention hearing was scheduled for Friday.

The messages that brought agents to his door

Kovco first drew the attention of federal authorities with a message sent through the White House website on March 17. In that message, prosecutors said, he referred to himself as "Mr. I'm going to [expletive] kill your child Kovco", an apparent reference to Barron Trump.

Two days later, on March 19, Secret Service agents visited Kovco's Chicago apartment. He was not home. But roughly two hours after that visit, prosecutors said, Kovco fired off a message that went far beyond the first.

The complaint quotes the message 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."

Kovco allegedly sent five more messages that same day. Authorities said the messages also outlined a sniper-style attack on President Trump and described plans to find Barron Trump "in NYC or DC or wherever" and attack him with a serrated bread knife.

The threats were not limited to March. Prosecutors allege Kovco sent a separate threat on August 18 through the Central Intelligence Agency's public website.

A trail that led straight back to his apartment

For all the menace in the language, the alleged threats were strikingly easy to trace. Authorities said Kovco included his own phone number and email address in the messages. The IP address used to send them matched the Chicago home he shares with two other adults.

Someone at the residence told agents that Kovco was not taking his prescribed medication, was unemployed, and rarely left the apartment, court documents state. The complaint does not describe what medication was prescribed or for what condition.

The case is a reminder that threats against the president and his family are not abstract, they require a real-world law enforcement response. The Secret Service has faced a series of security challenges involving the Trump family in recent years, including an armed intruder who was shot dead at Mar-a-Lago and incidents that have forced agents to adapt protective operations on the fly.

Officials send a clear message

U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros said threats of political violence "will be dealt with as the serious federal crime that it is."

Secret Service Special Agent-in-Charge Dai Tran said the agency "aggressively" pursues threats to ensure the safety of those under its protection. The agency has had to alter Trump's motorcade path after a suspicious find in Palm Beach, underscoring the constant operational pressure on agents assigned to the first family.

Kovco is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court. But the language in the complaint, specific, graphic, and directed at both the president and his son, explains why prosecutors want him held without bail.

Barron Trump, who turned 19 during his father's second term, has largely stayed out of the public spotlight. He has been described by those close to the family as quiet and business-minded. Yet his name now appears in a federal criminal complaint because a man in a Chicago apartment allegedly decided to threaten a teenager's life through a government website.

What remains unanswered

The complaint leaves several questions open. The year of the August 18 CIA-website threat is not specified in available court records. The complaint does not describe Kovco's motive, nor does it detail what medication he was prescribed or why he stopped taking it.

It is also unclear whether Kovco had access to firearms or took any steps to acquire one, despite his stated intention to buy a "small concealable firearm." Prosecutors have not publicly addressed that question.

The case follows other security-related incidents involving the Trump family, including one in which Barron Trump alerted UK authorities to an alleged assault in London. Each episode adds to a pattern that demands serious federal attention, and serious federal consequences.

Threatening to buy a gun and shoot up a Secret Service agent's workplace is not a cry for help. It is a federal crime. The system appears to have worked this time. Kovco is in custody, the complaint is unsealed, and a judge will decide what comes next. That is how it should be, every single time.