Neo-Nazi leader gets 20 years for sabotage plot
The founder of a neo-Nazi group was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for plotting to sabotage Baltimore’s power grid.
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USA, Maryland, Baltimore: On 7 August, the founder of a neo-Nazi group was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release, for plotting to sabotage Baltimore’s power grid, the US Attorney’s Office for Maryland said.
Brandon Russell, 30, of Orlando, Florida, was found guilty at trial earlier this year of conspiring to damage or destroy an energy facility. He received the highest possible sentence by Senior US District Judge James Bredar in Baltimore.
Sarah Beth Clendaniel, 37, of Catonsville, Maryland, stood trial as a co-conspirator and pleaded guilty in September 2024. She was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Prosecutors said the conspiracy was targeting multiple substations around Baltimore, which is predominantly Black and Maryland’s largest city. It was aimed at furthering a white supremacist ideology that sought the collapse of American society.
In a statement announcing sentencing, US Attorney Kelly Hayes said: “Russell allowed hatred to drive him and his co-conspirator to plot a dangerous scheme that could have harmed thousands of people.”
Between November 2022 and his arrest in February 2023, evidence showed that Russell plotted to shoot five substation transformers at once, aiming to trigger a widespread power outage across the city. Prosecutors said such an attack would have caused more than $75 M in damage.
Russell, founder of the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, had previously served five years for possessing an unregistered destructive device and improperly storing explosives in connection with a Florida power line plot. A confidential informant helped the FBI link him, while still under supervised release, to encrypted messages urging substation attacks. His attorney, Ian J. Goldstein, argued Clendaniel was more culpable and announced plans to appeal, citing concerns over alleged warrantless surveillance.
Source: KFGO
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