Baltimore – As founder of a Florida neo -Nazi group, he is judged to conspire Attack Maryland’s electricity gridTheir abhorrent beliefs are not really the point, federal prosecutors said on Tuesday.
They said that it is their willingness to act on those beliefs that jury members must consider during the trial, which is expected to last approximately two weeks in the Federal Court of Baltimore.
Brandon Russell, 29, encouraged his then girlfriend, Sarah Beth ClendanielTo carry out the attack of the electricity grid, with the hope of causing chaos in the promotion of their shared white supremacist opinions, according to prosecutors. The two were arrested in February 2023, before their plans were executed.
“Lord. Russell was at war. He was at war for his career, the white race,” said prosecutor Michael Aubin during the opening arguments on Tuesday afternoon.
According to prosecutors, the couple was planning a series of “sniper attacks” in electrical substations around Baltimore that could have caused significant damage to the regional electricity network. Its objective was to create chaos in the city-negro and finally stimulate a “racial war,” says prosecutors.
But Russell’s defense lawyer argued that his participation in the plot was minimal, qualifying the case “a configuration from the beginning.” While minimizing the role of Russell, lawyer Ian Goldstein set the conspiracy in Clendaniel and a confidential informant with which he connected through Russell.
Clendaniel, 36, declared himself guilty of drawing the attack and was sentenced in September 18 years in prison.
Russell appeared in court on Tuesday with a light blue jacket and glasses. He regularly conferred with his lawyer, wearing cheerful and committed.
“We do not put people in jail for their beliefs or the things they say,” said Goldstein, who also described his client’s opinions as “repulsive for most people.”
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 a stash of highly explosive materials and a cache of signs, posters, books and neo -Nazis flags. Russell was in the Florida National Guard at that time and had attended the University of Southern Florida.
The researchers said Russell co -founded the Atomwaffen division of the neo -Nazi Atomwaffen group, which is German for “atomic weapon.” They found flyers in their possession that said: “They do not prepare for exams, prepare for a racial war.” Russell also maintained a photo framed by Oklahoma City Timothy Mcveight in his room and read books like “Mein Kampf” and “The Turner Diaries”, both reading basic products of white supremacist extremists.
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.
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’s defense lawyer argued that his abusive childhood and adolescent struggles with addiction made her very vulnerable to the influence of people such as Russell and other white supremacists. He spent hours on the phone with a confidential informant, arguing how he would get a weapon and shoot in five electrical substations located in a ring around Baltimore, according to prosecutors.
When he was given the opportunity to address the Court during his sentence hearing last year, Clendaniel affirmed his racist ideology: “It’s true, his honor, I still have national socialist beliefs,” he said in September.
But she said there was a line that would not cross acting on them. She said she was fighting with serious mental and physical health problems when she participated in the plot, including a diagnosis of renal failure that she believed was terminal.
During Russell’s trial on Tuesday, his lawyer pointed out Clendaniel’s mental state as evidence that he had been desperate enough to carry out the attack. Meanwhile, Russell was “many miles away” in Orlando without plans to travel to Maryland and help, Goldstein argued.
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