The Justice Department has charged a Florida man with threatening to “call my Russian-Ukrainian hit squad” to kill his political opponent, Republican Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, in 2021.

The department on Thursday unsealed an indictment against 41-year-old William Robert Braddock III of St. Petersburg, Florida, alleging that on June 8, 2021, he made multiple telephone threats to Luna – listed as Victim 1 in the indictment identified – to injure and kill Call another person, victim 2.

Braddock and Luna were candidates in the 2021 Republican primary in Florida’s 13th Congressional District. Victim 2 was identified as a private citizen and an acquaintance of Luna.

In 2021, the Associated Press reported that Luna claimed in a Florida court that Braddock stalked her and threatened to hurt her.

In her request for a restraining order at the time, Luna said she received text messages between Braddock and other people in which Braddock allegedly said he wanted to “get me out.” Luna added that others had told her that the text “means he wants to kill me.”

“I do not feel safe and am currently in fear for my life in front of Mr. Braddock,” Luna said in the petition.

The Justice Department said Braddock subsequently left the U.S. and lived in the Philippines, but was recently deported back to the U.S., where he made his first court appearance Thursday in Los Angeles.

Braddock was charged with one count of interstate communication of a genuine threat to injure another person. If found guilty, he could face up to five years in prison.

The case is part of the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force. It was launched in June 2021 and addresses threats of violence against poll workers.