Brandon Russell: neo -Nazi leader in trial in the plot of the power network

As founder of the neo -Nazi Atomwaffen Division group, Brandon Russell was proud to be a man of action, federal prosecutors allege.

Russell, they claim, Subscribe to an ideology called accelerationwhich aims to accelerate the collapse of society through chaos and violence. And prosecutors claim that he was obsessed with attacking electrical substations.

He provided information, conducted investigations and helped ensure that people would not be trapped, prosecutors argue.

Russell, 29, from Orlando, Florida, is now in trial in the United States District Court in Baltimore for a conspiracy charge to damage an energy installation. Prosecutors claim that he layout With his girlfriend at that time, Sarah Beth Clendaniel, to attack the substations in Maryland and cause a “waterfall failure” of the electricity grid that in his words “would put this city to the loss.”

Once, they claim, Russell wrote: “Never forget. This is a war for our own existence. “

“Lord. Russell was at war,” American prosecutor Michael Aubin said on Tuesday in his opening statement. “He was at war for his career: the white race.”

The US Senior District Judge, James K. Bredar, presides over the trial, which could last two weeks.

Aubin told the jury that they would listen to witnesses, including special FBI agents, confidential sources and acceleration, ballistics and the value of the substations.

APPLICATION OF THE LAW arrested Russell and Clendaniel on February 3, 2023.

“In spite of all his work,” Aubin said, “they had no success.”

Clendaniel, 36, from Catonsville, He declared himself guilty Last year for conspiracy to damage an installation of energy and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. She was sentenced 18 years in prison.

Ian Goldstein, Russell’s lawyer, said his client has beliefs that are repulsive for most people and will anger them.

But Goldstein asked the jury to set aside that information and evaluate the evidence.

Goldstein said his client was not involved in the conspiracy.

Russell, he said, did not travel to Maryland or argued to reach the state. The government did not like, Goldstein said.

“He is the one they wanted,” Goldstein said in his opening statement. “He is the one who pointed.”

He said his client shared information that was publicly available on the Internet, which is not a crime. Instead, Goldstein said, that is a constitutionally protected speech.

A confidential source, he said, tried to make his client make incriminating statements.

“This was a configuration from the beginning,” Goldstein said.

The Government began calling witnesses in the case, including Arie Perliger, professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, who is an expert in extremism and extreme right accelerations.

Perlight testified that the Atomwaffen division existed from 2015 to 2020 and defended the opinions of supremacist, neo -Nazis and accelerationists.

The National Center for Innovation, Technology and Education of Innovation, Technology and Education of the University of Nebraska in Omaha report That found that the United States Department of Justice has prosecuted 20 members of the group since 2017 for numerous positions.

Police, according to the report, have largely dismantled the organization through a series of specific arrests.

The white supremacy ecosystem in the United States is comprehensive, Perlight said. But the Atomwaffen division tried to distinguish himself by encouraging action, he said.

Violence, he said, was inherent in his ideology.