Tampa neo -Nazi group condemned for consigning the attack of Maryland’s electricity grid

The founder of a neo -Nazi group based in Tampa was sentenced on Monday to conspire with his ex -girlfriend to plan an attack on Maryland’s power network to promote his shared racist beliefs.

Brandon Russell, 29, encouraged Sarah Beth Clendaniel To carry out a “sniper attacks” series According to federal prosecutors. Its objective was to create chaos in the black-negro city, prosecutors say.

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

The jury of 12 people deliberated for less than an hour after hearing about four days of testimony in a federal court in Baltimore. They found Russell guilty of a conspiracy charge to damage an energy installation, the only load he faced.

Russell will be sentenced at a later date. He appeared in court with a light blue jacket and glasses. He regularly conferred with his lawyer throughout the trial, wearing cheerful and committed.

Several years ago, Russell co-founded the Atomwaffen division of the Neo-Nazi Tampa group, which is German for “atomic weapon.”

He previously declared himself guilty of possession of an unregistered destructive device and inappropriate storage of explosive materials after the researchers registered their home and found a stash of highly explosive materials and a cache of signs, posters, books and neo -Nazis flags.

During the final arguments of Monday, prosecutor Joseph Baldwin told trial testimony, even a confidential informant who connected with Russell through the application of Telegram social networks. Russell presented Clendaniel and the informant, hoping that the person could help him obtain a firearm to use in the attack, according to prosecutors.

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

Prosecutors played a clip of a recorded phone call in which Russell used a racist expletive and secretly requested the informant, saying: “It is important that you do not talk about this to anyone.”

While prosecutors said that Russell hoped to incite a racial war, his defense lawyer minimized his participation in the plot, qualifying the case “a configuration from the beginning.”

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

“He was an animator, as terrible as it sounds,” Goldstein said, recognizing his client’s “repulsive” ideology. “That’s what it was, and that’s not illegal.”

It was not enough to convince the jury. Before the jury members began to deliberate on Monday night, the US district judge James Bredar told them that a guilt verdict would require a finding that Russell had “committed, advised or assisted” in the conspiracy with the knowledge of knowledge of Its objectives.

Apparently, Russell was not on the police radar until the police responded to A double homicide of 2017 In a Tampa Apartment building and found him out, crying, dressed in military fatigue. One of his roommates had killed the other two, authorities said.

Police concluded that Russell had nothing to do with mortal shootings. But while the detectives investigated, they discovered the explosive materials and neo -Nazi paraphernalia in the possession of Russell, including the flyers that said: “They do not prepare for the exams, prepare for a racial war” and a photo framed by Oklahoma City’s bombing Timothy Mcveight.

Russell was in the Florida National Guard at that time and had attended the University of Southern Florida.

Devon Arthurs, who later He declared himself guilty To kill his roommates, he told the detectives that he shot them to make fun of him about his recent conversion to Islam. He also said it was frustrating a terrorist attack by Atomwaffen and said Russell had materials in the House of Representatives “to kill civilians and places directed as electricity lines, nuclear reactors and synagogues,” prosecutors said.

Goldstein also represented Russell in that case, when the lawyer argued that possessing explosives did not mean that Russell intended to use them to cause damage. Goldstein said his client was traumatized by the death of his roommates and suffered mental health problems. Family members said Russell was just a follower who was looking for a community and tried to please his friends.

Russell finally declared himself guilty of possession of an unregistered destructive device and inappropriate storage of explosive materials. Was sentenced in 2018 to serve Five years in prison. During the sentence hearing, a federal judge in Tampa expressed his explicit concern that Russell could fall with the wrong crowd behind bars.

Several years later, federal researchers discovered their relationship with Clendaniel, who similarly had a long history of white supremacist beliefs.

She and Russell began exchange letters around 2018 while they were imprisoned in different facilities. They developed a romantic relationship that continued after they were released from prison, according to judicial records.

Clendaniel, 36, declared himself guilty of consigning the attack and was sentenced in September to 18 years in prison.