BALTIMORE — As the founder of a Florida-based neo-Nazi group goes on trial for conspiring to attack Maryland’s power grid, his abhorrent beliefs aren’t really the point, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
They said it is his willingness to act on those beliefs that jurors must consider during the trial, which is expected to last about two weeks in Baltimore federal court.
Brandon Russell, 29, encouraged his then-girlfriend, Sarah Beth Clendaniel, to carry out the power grid attack, hoping to cause chaos in furtherance of their shared white supremacist views, according to prosecutors. The two were arrested in February 2023 — before their plans were executed.
“Mr. Russell was at war. He was at war for his race, the white race,” prosecutor Michael Aubin said during opening arguments Tuesday afternoon.
According to prosecutors, the pair was planning a series of “sniper attacks” on electrical substations around Baltimore that could have caused significant damage to the regional power grid. Their goal was to create chaos in the majority-Black city and ultimately spur a “race war,” prosecutors say.
But Russell’s defense attorney argued his participation in the plot was minimal, calling the case “a setup from the very beginning.” While downplaying Russell’s role, attorney Ian Goldstein pinned the conspiracy on Clendaniel and a confidential informant she connected with through Russell.
Clendaniel, 36, pleaded guilty to plotting the attack and was sentenced in September to 18 years in prison.
Russell appeared in court Tuesday wearing a light blue jacket and glasses. He conferred regularly with his attorney, looking cheerful and engaged.
“We don’t put people in jail for their beliefs or the things they say,” said Goldstein, who also called his client’s views “repulsive to most people.”
Russell apparently wasn’t on law enforcement’s radar until police responded to a 2017 double homicide at a Tampa apartment building and found him outside crying, dressed in military fatigues. One of his roommates had killed the other two, officials said.
Police concluded Russell had nothing to do with the deadly shootings. But while detectives investigated, they discovered a stash of highly explosive materials and a cache of neo-Nazi signs, posters, books and flags. Russell was in the Florida National Guard at the time and had attended the University of South Florida.
Investigators said Russell co-founded the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, which is German for “atomic weapon.” They found flyers in his possession that said, “Don’t prepare for exams, prepare for a race war.” Russell also kept a framed photo of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh in his room and read books like “Mein Kampf” and “The Turner Diaries,” both reading staples of white supremacist extremists.
Devon Arthurs, who later pleaded guilty to killing his roommates, told detectives he shot them for teasing him about his recent conversion to Islam. He also said it was to thwart a terrorist attack by Atomwaffen and claimed Russell had materials in the house “to kill civilians and target locations like power lines, nuclear reactors, and synagogues,” prosecutors said.
Goldstein also represented Russell in that case, when the attorney argued that possessing explosives didn’t mean Russell intended to use them to cause harm. Goldstein said his client was traumatized by the deaths of his roommates and already suffered from mental health issues. Family members said Russell was just a follower looking for community and trying to please his friends.
Russell ultimately pleaded guilty to possession of an unregistered destructive device and improper storage of explosive materials. He was sentenced in 2018 to serve five years in prison. During the sentencing hearing, a federal judge in Tampa expressed explicit concern that Russell could fall in with the wrong crowd behind bars.
Several years later, federal investigators discovered his relationship with Clendaniel.
She and Russell began exchanging letters around 2018 while they were incarcerated in different facilities. They developed a romantic relationship that continued after they were released from prison, court records show.
Clendaniel’s defense attorney argued that her abusive childhood and adolescent struggles with addiction made her acutely vulnerable to the influence of people like Russell and other white supremacists. She spent hours on the phone with a confidential informant, discussing how she would obtain a gun and shoot at five electrical substations situated in a ring around Baltimore, according to prosecutors.
When given a chance to address the court during her sentencing hearing last year, Clendaniel affirmed her racist ideology: “It’s true, your honor, I do still hold National Socialist beliefs,” she said in September.
But she claimed there was a line she wouldn’t cross by acting on them. She said she was struggling with severe mental and physical health problems when she participated in the plot, including a diagnosis of kidney failure that she believed was terminal.
During Russell’s trial Tuesday, his attorney pointed to Clendaniel’s mental state as evidence she had been desperate enough to carry out the attack. Russell, meanwhile, was “many miles away” in Orlando with no plans to travel to Maryland and help, Goldstein argued.
