A Salina could face time in federal prison for posting on Facebook a threat against U.S. President Trump.

The criminal complaint against Aaron McDowell says on Tuesday (Jan.21), he posted on his Facebook page, "I'm going to kill Trump in the white house tomorrow at 7 PM."

A federal court judge formally charged McDowell with one count of threatening the president.

An affidavit detailing the crime says McDowell followed with a response after someone responded to his original post. The response to the threat said, "Yo prove it." To that, McDowell replied, "You'll see it on the news," the affidavit says.

A secret service agent interviewed McDowell Wednesday at McDowell's home in Salina.

"During this interview, Aaron McDowell stated that during a (Tuesday) telephone conversation about government conspiracy theories, with his father," the affidavit says. In that conversation, it says McDowell "stated he made the verbal statement to his father, he was going to post on Facebook that he was going to kill the president. "(McDowell) stated that he was told by his father not to do it because that was serious and that he would be visited by agents of the government for such posting. (McDowell) stated that after hearing his father's warning, he posted the threat on Facebook using his personal cellular phone."

Friday, McDowell appeared in federal court in Wichita for a hearing. His roommate, Quentin Lashell, says this became a bigger deal than McDowell thought it would become.

"I don't think he realized the severity," Lashell says.

Lashell says McDowell didn't actually intend carry out any threat against the president.

"He's in Salina, in the middle of the map. He made no attempt to go there," Lashell says.

A few of McDowell's friends attended Friday's hearing, hoping they could bring him home to Salina.

"I was hoping the judge would let him be released to us. I'd really like him to come home and be able to fight this in his own home and not be locked up," Lashell says.

However, the judge ordered that McDowell be temporarily detained because of previous failures to appear in separate cases. McDowell's detention hearing is set for next Wednesday (Jan. 29).