Michigan Man Gets 10-Month Prison Sentence for Death Threats Against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer

A 40-year-old man has been sentenced to 10 months in prison after authorities said he made threats involving Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Federal prosecutors said Steven Conway called a DTE Energy call center in Wisconsin in January 2025 and threatened to “hunt down” shareholders and others connected to the company, calling them a “target for assassination.” In the days that followed, prosecutors said Conway also posted on a dating website that Whitmer, a Democrat, was among people on a list “marked for assassination.”

On Friday, Feb. 13, U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. said U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. White sentenced Conway to 10 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to two counts of communicating threats in interstate commerce. Conway, a Michigan native, will also serve two years of supervised release.

“Threats of political violence and retribution are an attack on the rule of law,” Gorgon said in a statement, adding that officials will protect public servants and citizens.

Jennifer Runyan, the FBI special agent in charge of the Detroit Field Office, also condemned the alleged threats, saying violence directed at public officials, private citizens, or company shareholders is a serious crime and will be treated accordingly. She added that the FBI will continue to investigate such cases and work with prosecutors to hold people accountable.

The sentencing comes more than five years after 14 people were arrested and charged in connection with an alleged plot to overthrow the government and kidnap Whitmer, with prosecutors alleging the group planned to use explosives to disrupt police responding to the abduction.

In an October 2020 statement, then-U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider said political disagreements should never lead to violence and praised law enforcement for uncovering the alleged plot.

Nearly three years after the kidnapping plot was made public, Whitmer said in a March 2023 interview that her family had “made sacrifices” for safety and that she thinks about the risk “everywhere I go.” She also said she believes the former president made her a target and escalated tensions, adding that the concern can surface even when she is protected by a security detail, particularly in large crowds.