Brandon Russell: Neo-Nazi Group Leader convicted of planning Maryland Power Grid Attack

AP
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The founder of a Florida-based Neo-Nazi group was convicted Monday for having the conspiracy with his former girlfriend to plan an attack on Maryland’s power network in the promotion of their common racist conviction.

Brandon Russell, 29, encouraged Sarah Beth Clendaniel to perform one Series of “Snipe Shooting Attack” At electrical stations around Baltimore that could have caused significant damage to the regional power net, according to federal prosecutors. Their goal was to create chaos in majority-black city, prosecutors say.

The two were arrested in February 2023 – before the plans were executed.

The 12-person jury considered for less than an hour after hearing about four days of testimony in the federal court in Baltimore. They found Russell guilty of a count of conspiracy to damage an energy facility, the only charge he was facing.

Russell will be convicted at a later date. He appeared in court wearing a light blue jacket and glasses. He regularly transferred his lawyer throughout the trial and looked cheerful and engaged.

Several years ago, Russell Neo-Nazi founded the Group atomic Waffle Division, which is German for “nuclear weapons.”

This was not his first run-in with law enforcement. Russell previously declared himself guilty of possession of an unregistered destructive unit and incorrect storage of explosive materials after investigators searched his home and found a stash of very explosive materials and a cache of neo -Nazi signs, posters, books and flags.

During the end of arguments on Monday afternoon, prosecutor Joseph Baldwin told the lawsuits, including from a confidential informant who got connected to Russell through the Social Media App Telegram. Russell introduced Clendaniel and the informant in the hope that the person could help her get a firearm to use in the attack, according to prosecutors.

“He was the team leader who took care of his warrior,” Baldwin told the jury.

Prosecutors played a clip from a recorded phone call in which Russell used a racist expressive and requested secrecy from the informant and said to him, “It’s important that you don’t talk about this to anyone.”

While prosecutors claimed that Russell hoped to encourage a race war, his defense lawyer neglected his commitment to the plot and called the case “a setup right from the beginning.”

Russell was in Florida all the time without plans to travel to Maryland and actively help carry out the attack, said lawyer Ian Goldstein. Russell may have supported the efforts to disturb modern society and restore white supremacy, but he was not a co -conspiracy in this case, Goldstein said during his closing argument.

“He was a cheerleader – as awful as it sounds,” Goldstein said, recognizing his client’s “repulsive” ideology. “That’s what he was and it’s not illegal.”

It wasn’t enough to convince the jury. Before the jury leader began to consider on Monday night, US district judge James Bredar told them that a guilty verdict would require a finding that Russell had “engaged, advised or helped” in the conspiracy with knowledge of its goals.

Russell was apparently not on law enforcement radar until police responded to A 2017 double murder In a Tampa apartment building and found him outside crying, dressed in military fatigue. One of his roommates had killed the other two, officials said.

Police concluded that Russell had nothing to do with the deadly shootings. But while detectives were investigating, they discovered the explosive materials and neo -Nazi parafernalities in Russell’s possession, including Flyers, who said, “Do not prepare for exams, prepared for a racing war” and a framed photo of Oklahoma City Bomber Timothy McVeigh.

Russell was in the Florida National Guard at the time and had participated in the University of South Florida.

Devon Arthurs, who later pleaded guilty To kill his roommates told Detective that he shot them to tease him about his recent conversion to Islam. He also said it was to avert a terrorist attack from the atomwaff and claimed that Russell had materials in the house “to kill civilians and target places such as power lines, nuclear reactors and synagogues,” prosecutors said.

Goldstein also represented Russell in this case when the lawyer claimed that possession of explosives did not mean that Russell intended to use them to cause harm. Goldstein said his client was traumatized by the death of his roommates and already suffered from mental health problems. Family members said Russell was just a follower looking for communities and tried to please his friends.

Russell ultimately pleaded with an unregistered destructive unit and incorrect storage of explosive materials. He was sentenced in 2018 to earn Five years in prison. During the criminal judgment, a federal judge in Tampa expressed explicit concern that Russell could fall in with the wrong audience behind pillars.

Several years later, federal investigators discovered his relationship with Clendaniel, which similarly had a long history of white supremacist faith.

She and Russell began to exchange letters around 2018 while being caught in various facilities. They developed a romantic relationship that continued after being released from the prison, the Court of Court shows.

Clendaniel, 36, pleaded guilty to planning the attack and was sentenced in September to 18 years in prison.