The founder of a Florida-based neo-Nazi group has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for conspiring with his girlfriend to plan an attack on Maryland’s power grid in furtherance of their shared racist beliefs.
Brandon Russell, 30, was convicted by a jury earlier this year. Prosecutors presented evidence detailing his longstanding affiliation with white supremacist causes and his recent efforts to organize “sniper attacks” on electrical substations around Baltimore.
During a sentencing hearing Thursday afternoon in federal court in Baltimore, US district judge James Bredar excoriated the defendant for his reprehensible views, saying Russell was clearly the brains behind the operation, which sought to precipitate societal collapse by targeting the energy infrastructure of a majority-Black city.
In the aftermath of the planned attacks, Russell and his co-defendant, Sarah Beth Clendaniel, intended to “create their own bizarre utopia populated by people who only look and think like they do”, Bredar said.
“Well, that’s not how it works,” the judge continued. “The law doesn’t permit that. We don’t change course in this country via violent overthrow.”
Bredar imposed the maximum sentence allowed for Russell’s conviction of conspiracy to damage an energy facility. The judge also ordered a lifetime of supervised release, including close monitoring of Russell’s electronic devices.
Bredar previously sentenced Clendaniel to 18 years behind bars after she pleaded guilty to her role in the plot. He said Russell should receive a longer sentence because he was more culpable and contributed the “intellectual horsepower” that propelled the plot closer to fruition.
The two were arrested in February 2023 — before their plans were executed.
At trial, it was alleged that the planned attacks could have affected significant portions of Baltimore and caused nearly $70m in damage to electrical transformers.
An FBI employee who engaged Russell online while undercover as a neo-Nazi testified during the trial about conversations in which Russell urged him to attack power stations and power lines.
Russell’s attorney, Ian Goldstein, has argued that Clendaniel posed a greater threat because she was taking steps to obtain a firearm and shoot up electrical substations. Meanwhile, Russell was living in Florida with absolutely no plans to travel to Maryland, according to his attorney.
“For Mr Russell, everything was talk,” Goldstein told the court.
He also pointed to Russell’s supportive family. Court papers filed ahead of sentencing included a letter from his mother, who said she believes he’s been trying to fill the void left by a largely absent father. She said some challenges arose with her son after she moved them back to the Bahamas, where she has relatives.
“Brandon Russell is an educated young man who has served this country’s military,” his attorney wrote, connecting his descent into nazism with longstanding mental health challenges. “His family relationships speak volumes of the person he can be.”
The judge wasn’t persuaded, but he noted Russell’s “somewhat complicated psycho-social history” and recommended mental health treatment during his time in prison.
Russell declined to address the judge directly. He appeared in court wearing maroon prison attire and showed no obvious signs of emotion during the hearing.
Several years ago, Russell co-founded the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, which is German for “atomic weapon”. The guerrilla group was connected to five murders and several bomb plots, but was taken down by federal agents in 2020.
Prosecutors in California said a man convicted last year of stabbing to death Blaze Bernstein, a gay, Jewish university student in a hate crime was affiliated with Atomwaffen Division.
Russell’s trial provided a window into the Biden administration’s efforts to take on violent rightwing extremists, the Guardian previously reported. Current and former state department officials have raised concerns that the Trump administration was minimizing threats of far-right and white supremacist violence.
This wasn’t Russell’s first run-in with law enforcement. In 2017, police responded to a double homicide at a Tampa apartment building and found Russell outside crying, dressed in military fatigues. One of his roommates had killed the other two, officials said. During a search of the house, police found a stash of highly explosive materials and a cache of neo-Nazi signs, posters, books and flags. Russell pleaded guilty to possession of an unregistered destructive device and improper storage of explosives.
