Neo-Nazi Sentenced For Plotting To Destroy Baltimore Power Grid

BALTIMORE, MD — A Florida man who plotted to destroy the Baltimore-area power grid was sentenced to prison this week, according to federal prosecutors.

Brandon Clint Russell, 30, of Orlando, was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on Thursday for his role in the plot, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland announced. Following his prison sentence, Russell was also ordered to serve a lifetime of supervised release.

In February, Russell was found guilty of conspiracy to damage an energy facility after a six-day trial.

Prosecutors said he hoped to start a race war with the attack.

From at least November 2022 to February 2023, Russell conspired with his girlfriend, 37-year-old Sarah Beth Clendaniel of Catonsville, to carry out attacks against critical infrastructure and interrupt the Baltimore regional power grid.

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They devised the plot “in furtherance of his racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist beliefs,” the U.S. Department of Justice said.

The couple planned to destroy electrical substations in Reisterstown, Perry Hall, Norrisville in Harford County and other locations, court documents said.

Russell posted links to open-source maps of infrastructure, including the locations of substations, and he described how a small number of attacks on these substations could cause a “cascading failure,” the department said. He also discussed plans to hit multiple substations at the same time.

The monetary loss associated with the planned attacks would have been more than $75 million, authorities said.

Clendaniel identified five substations to target, and Russell tried to secure a weapon for her.

She said that if they hit several substations all in the same day, they “would completely destroy this whole city,” and that a “good four or five shots through the center of them … should make that happen,” according to the DOJ.

She further added, “(It) would probably permanently completely lay this city to waste if we could do that successfully.”

Clendaniel was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Sept. 25. This will be followed by a lifetime of supervised release for conspiring with her boyfriend. She was also sentenced to 15 years in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm and three years of supervised release.

Russell, a former Florida National Guard member, is the founder of the violent neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen, which targets racial minorities, the Jewish community, the LGBTQ community, journalists, the United States government and critical infrastructure, according to court documents.

In a previous case, he pleaded guilty to possession of an unregistered destructive device and improper storage of explosive materials after authorities found highly explosive materials, along with neo-Nazi signs, posters, books and flags in his home.

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