“Threats of political violence and retribution are an attack on the rule of law,” U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. said after the sentencing
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NEED TO KNOW
- Steven Conway, 40, was sentenced to 10 months in prison for threatening to assassinate Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
- After calling DTE Energy and threatening to “hunt down” shareholders, Conway wrote on a dating website that Gov. Whitmer was among those on a list “marked for assassination”
- U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. said after the sentencing, “We will protect our public servants and the regular citizens who make our country free and prosperous”
A 40-year-old man was sentenced to 10 months in prison for threatening to assassinate Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Steven Conway called a Wisconsin DTE Energy call center in January 2025, threatening to “hunt down” shareholders and members of the energy company while also declaring them a “target for assassination.”
In the following days, Conway, who has been previously convicted for threatening to kill a Michigan judge and police officers, wrote on a dating website that Gov. Whitmer, a Democrat, was among those on a list “marked for assassination.”
On Friday, Feb. 13, U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. announced that District Court Judge Robert J. White sentenced Conway to 10 months in prison following his guilty plea to two counts of communicating threats in interstate commerce. The judge also included a two-year term of supervised release for the Michigan native.
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“Threats of political violence and retribution are an attack on the rule of law,” Gorgon said in a press release. “We will protect our public servants and the regular citizens who make our country free and prosperous.”
Jennifer Runyan, the special agent in charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office, echoed the severity of such threatening actions.
“Threats of violence of this nature, whether directed at a public officials, private citizens, or company shareholders, are serious crimes and will be treated as such," she stated. “The FBI will not tolerate any attempt to intimidate, endanger, or coerce individuals through online platforms.”
“We will continue to aggressively investigate these offenses and work with the U.S. Attorney’s Office to pursue those who make such threats, so they are held fully accountable under the law,” she added.
Conway’s sentencing comes more than five years after 14 people were arrested and charged for their alleged involvement in a plot to overthrow the government and kidnap Gov. Whitmer before detonating explosives to disrupt police responding to the abduction.
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"All of us can disagree about politics, but those disagreements should never, ever result in violence," U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider, Eastern District of Michigan, said in an October 2020 statement. “The allegations in this complaint are deeply disturbing. We owe our thanks to the men and women of law enforcement who uncovered this plot and have worked so hard to protect Governor Whitmer.”
Nearly three years after the alleged kidnapping plot was uncovered, Gov. Whitmer said during an interview with Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace? that her whole family has since “made sacrifices” in the name of safety.
"I think about [being in danger] everywhere I go," she admitted in March 2023. "The former president made me a target and threw a lot of gas on the fire and it has continued to burn. And I think about it everywhere I go."
Whitmer was often a target of criticism from President Donald Trump, both before and after the attempted attack.
"There are times when I am in public — and I've got the greatest state police detail in the world," she continued. "But there are big crowds sometimes, and it does cross my mind."
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