The gunman accused of bringing a rifle to Donald Trump’s golf course was indicted Tuesday and charged with attempting to assassinate the former president.

Ryan Routh, 58, had initially faced two federal firearms charges, but prosecutors said during a court hearing Monday that they would ask a grand jury to charge him with attempting to assassinate Trump, who is also the 2024 Republican nominee. That charge — attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate — carries with it a potential sentence of life in prison.

He also was charged with assaulting a federal officer and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. The new counts mark a significant escalation in the federal case against Routh, which Trump had criticized Monday, saying the initial counts were “a slap on the wrist.”

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“Violence targeting public officials endangers everything our country stands for, and the Department of Justice will use every available tool to hold Ryan Routh accountable for the attempted assassination of former President Trump charged in the indictment,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement.

Routh was accused by law enforcement officials of bringing the rifle to Trump’s West Palm Beach, Fla., golf course while the former president was golfing Sept. 15. A Secret Service agent working on Trump’s security detail spotted him in the brush and then opened fire after seeing a rifle.

Authorities said Routh did not fire a shot during the encounter. In a court filing Monday, they said he had left a handwritten letter with a friend months earlier that stated, “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump.”

Routh’s attorneys attempted in court to portray the golf course incident as a publicity stunt, suggesting it was not a serious attempt to kill Trump. They unsuccessfully sought to have him released on bond.

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Neither Routh’s lawyers nor the Trump campaign immediately responded to a request for comment Tuesday evening.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement that the bureau was continuing to investigate the case and would “uncover and provide as much information as possible about what led to the events in West Palm Beach.”

The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, according to a person familiar with the assignment, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it had not yet been posted on the court docket.

Cannon was also randomly assigned last year to preside over the federal prosecution of Trump for allegedly mishandling of classified documents after leaving the White House and obstructing government efforts to retrieve them.

In that case, Cannon sided with Trump’s lawyers and dismissed the case against him this summer, ruling that the special counsel overseeing the prosecution was unlawfully appointed. Her decision, which the special counsel is appealing, broke with decades of legal precedent and has received heavy backlash from both Democratic and Republican lawyers.

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Last week’s golf course episode marked the second time in about two months that someone apparently sought to kill Trump. The former president was wounded July 13 when a gunman opened fire during a campaign rally in Butler, Pa.

The Secret Service has faced intense scrutiny since the Butler shooting, during which a gunman was able to gain a clear line of sight towards Trump from the rooftop of an unsecured building. Kimberly Cheatle, the agency’s director, stepped down from her job days later.

Last week, an internal review found the agency’s actions in Butler were rife with mistakes, including poor communication and inadequate planning. Ronald L. Rowe Jr., who became the agency’s acting director after Cheatle resigned, vowed that the Secret Service would “use the lessons learned to make sure that we do not have another failure like this again.”

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Rowe has described the Secret Service’s actions in West Palm Beach last week as a success, saying that the agent who spotted the alleged gunman alongside the golf course “took a swift action” against a threat.

Federal authorities have alleged that Routh spent nearly 12 hours in the bushes near the golf course before he was spotted, raising further questions about the security apparatus surrounding Trump as he seeks another term in office.

During a detention hearing Monday, assistant U.S. attorney Mark Dispoto said Routh had been lurking in a “sniper’s nest” alongside the golf course. “He was there for one reason and one reason only,” Dispoto said. “He was there to kill the former president of the United States.”

Federal prosecutors said Routh was in Florida for at least a month before the incident, alleging that he was near Trump’s property multiple times between mid-August and mid-September. In a court filing, prosecutors included a copy of what they said was one of several letters Routh left with a friend months beforehand.

“Dear World,” read a copy of the letter included in the filing. “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I am so sorry I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster.”