A former Republican congressional candidate in Florida has been charged with threatening to send a Russian-Ukrainian hit squad to kill his political opponent during their 2022 primary race.

William Robert Braddock III, who was recently deported back to the U.S. from the Philippines to face charges, made his first court appearance Thursday in Los Angeles, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday in a press release .

The 41-year-old faces one count of interstate transmission of a true threat to injure another person, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.