Cops find child porn on phone of Kansas man accused of threatening to kill Trump

A Kansas man accused of threatening to kill President Donald Trump now also faces child pornography charges after investigators searched his phone.

Aaron McDowell, 24, of Salina, was charged Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Wichita with distributing child porn and possessing child porn, U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister said in a news release.

McDowell was charged last week with threatening to kill the president of the United States. Court documents allege he made a post to his Facebook page that read “I’m going to kill Trump in the white house tomorrow at 7 p.m.”

Another person commented on McDowell’s post, stating “Yo prove it.” McDowell responded with “You’ll see it on the news,” according to an affidavit written by a Secret Service agent.

The Facebook post was made on Jan. 21, and the Secret Service agent interviewed McDowell at his house the next day. According to court documents, McDowell admitted to posting the death threat from his phone. He told the agent that he had been discussing government conspiracy theories with his dad before writing the social media threat.

Investigators later searched his phone, McAllister said, and found 152 files of children performing sex acts. Further investigation turned up 2,800 child porn images in an online storage account and online chats where child porn was distributed.

Kansas Department of Corrections records show he spent time in state prison after violating his probation in a 2017 aggravated assault case in Saline County. His sentence expired on Jan. 20 — the day before the death threat was posted to Facebook.

If convicted of threatening the president, McDowell could face a fine and up to 5 years in federal prison. On the distributing child porn charge, McDowell would face 5-20 years in prison, and he would face up to 20 years and a fine of up to $250,000 on the child porn possession charge.

This story was originally published January 28, 2020 at 2:51 PM.