Neo-Nazi group leader sentenced to 20 years in prison for planned Maryland power grid attack [View all]

Source: AP

Updated 4:49 PM EDT, August 7, 2025


BALTIMORE (AP) — 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, U.S. 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.”

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/brandon-russell-maryland-power-grid-attack-plot-neonazi-9e6d8ff8c7695e356f566cce8caa902b