Neo-Nazi and woman charged with conspiring to attack Maryland power grid

An admitted neo-Nazi and a Maryland woman were arrested and charged with plotting to attack several electrical substations in the Baltimore area, federal authorities announced Monday.

Prosecutors said the admitted neo-Nazi, Brandon Clint Russell, 27, and 34-year-old Sarah Beth Clendaniel conspired to commit the attacks “in furtherance of Russell’s racially or ethnically motivated extremist beliefs.”

Russell is currently on supervised release after a federal conviction related to possessing an unregistered destructive device, which occurred after a former roommate told authorities that Russell’s neo-Nazi group was planning to attack electrical and nuclear power infrastructure in Florida.

Clendaniel allegedly boasted that if the electrical substations were all attacked on the same day, it “would completely destroy this whole city,” according to a newly unsealed criminal complaint against her and Russell.