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Catonsville's Sarah Beth Clendaniel, 34, pleaded guilty on Tuesday, May 14 to conspiring to disable the facilities and for being a felon in possession of a firearm following a scheme she planned with 27-year-old Orlando resident Brandon Clint Russell, the US Justice Department said.
On Wednesday, officials announced she has been sentenced to 18 years in federal prison, along with other conditions, for her role in the scheme.
Prosecutors said that the duo “conspired to willfully damage the property of an energy facility, causing damage exceeding $100,000 and causing a significant interruption and impairment of a function of the facility.”
Beginning in June 2022, officials said that Russell conspired to carry out attacks against critical infrastructure, specifically electrical structures “in furtherance of (his) racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist beliefs.”
“Sarah Beth Clendaniel engaged in a hate-filled scheme to destroy the infrastructure Marylanders rely on every day,” Special Agent in Charge William DelBagno of the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office said. “Through rigorous investigation and law enforcement partnerships, her radical plan was halted."
Russell would post links to open-source maps of infrastructure, describing how a small number of attacks on substations could cause a “cascading failure” while discussing the possibility of maximizing their impact by hitting multiple stations at once, drawing in Clendaniel, who has a lengthy criminal past.
“(Clendaniel) plotted to disable the power grid around the entire Baltimore region and cause harm to thousands of people in pursuit of a racially motivated violent extremist agenda,” FBI Director Christopher Wray added. “Her plan failed thanks to the great work of the FBI and our law enforcement partners.
According to her guilty plea, between December 2022 and February 2023, "Clendaniel conspired with Russell to damage energy facilities involved in the transmission and distribution of electricity and to cause a significant interruption and impairment of the Baltimore regional power grid."
"Clendaniel and Russell espouse a white supremacist ideology and advocate a concept known as 'accelerationism,' officials stated.
To 'accelerate' or to support 'accelerationism' is based on a white supremacist belief that the current system is irreparable and without an apparent political solution, and therefore violent action is necessary to precipitate societal and government collapse, reads a release from federal officials.
Clendaniel planned to secure a rifle and identified five possible substations in Maryland to target, stating that she "wanted to accomplish something worthwhile," prosecutors said.
Clendaniel stated that if they hit a number of the substations all in the same day, they “would completely destroy this whole city,” and that a “good four or five shots through the center of them . . . should make that happen.” She further added, “(I)t would probably permanently completely lay this city to waste if we could do that successfully.”
In photos released by the Department of Justice, a show Clendaniel wearing tactical gear featuring a swastika, holding a rifle, with a pistol in a holster on her left leg.
Court documents state that the intended monetary loss associated with the planned attacks would have exceeded $75 million.
In January 2023, Clendaniel identified her targets, which included Norrisville, Reistertown, and Perry Hall to the source expected to provide her with the weapon, explaining that there was a “ring” around Baltimore and if they hit a number of them all in the same day.
Clendaniel also said that the most difficult target that they would have to do together has “fire walls on three sides.”
A search of Clendaniel's Catonsville home in February turned up multiple weapons and hundreds of rounds of ammunition that she was prohibited from possessing due to her previous felony convictions.
"Federal law prohibits Clendaniel from possessing these items because she is a convicted felon, including convictions in Cecil County for two robberies and an attempted robbery in 2016.
Russell and Clendaniel’s relationship began in 2018 when both were incarcerated in different facilities, according to court documents. Clendaniel reportedly has a lengthy criminal history that includes a 2006 arrest for a number of offenses that resulted in a felony robbery conviction and a five-year prison bid.
In those court documents, officials noted that in May 2017, Russell lived in Tampa, Florida with three roommates, one of whom murdered the other two while he was not home.
During the subsequent investigation, police found Neo-Nazi paraphernalia, a picture of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, and “the highly explosive hexamethylene triperoxide diamine.”
While he was being interviewed, Russell also “admitted to subscribing to ‘National Socialist’ or Nazi beliefs, that he had started his own local National Socialist Group called the ‘Atomwaffen,’ that his roommates were members of ‘Atomwaffen’ and he had manufactured the (explosives).”
“Clendaniel, a felon, spent months plotting, planning and taking steps to inflict grave damage to Maryland’s power grid in furtherance of her white supremacist ideology,” FBI Special Agent in Charge William DelBagno said on Tuesday.
“The FBI will continue to investigate violent threats as the safety and security of all Marylanders remains a priority.”
In addition to her prison term, Clendaniel was also ordered by a judge to serve a lifetime of supervised release for conspiring to damage or destroy electrical facilities in Maryland.
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