The white nationalist and neo-Nazi views of a Florida man accused of plotting to kill Baltimore’s energy grid are certainly up for debate in federal judge over the next two days, a prosecutor and defense counsel agreed at the outset of his trial Tuesday.
Instead, jury will decide whether Brandon Clint Russell, 29, participated in a crime to harm an energy service — the hapless national demand looming over him. The act carries a maximum of 20 years in prison.
” The respondent was a man of action. He prided himself on motion”, Assistant U. S. Attorney Michael F. Aubin said in his opening speech while displaying images of Russell performing a Nazi respect and pictures of information in which Russell described his desire to act on his ideas.
But security attorney Ian J. Goldstein said jury would not see a “scintilla of information” that his client intended to engage in the killing of five Baltimore Gas &, Electric stations alongside his co-defendant, Sarah Beth Clendaniel, and a private informant who worked with the FBI.
” He is asking you to look at the evidence and no indict him because you do not like what he believes”, Goldstein told the jury, arguing that FBI agents entrapped Russell.
Federal officials arrested Russell and Clendaniel, of Catonsville, in , February 2023 , after an intensive research into their alleged plot to destroy electronic inverters around Baltimore to further their radical plan.
Both believe in “accelerationism”, an ideology that posits that speeding up the collapse of society is the only way to achieve white supremacy.
Clendaniel, 36,  , pleaded guilty in May , to conspiring to damage an electrical facility and illegally possessing a firearm. U. S. District Judge James K. Bredar, who is presiding over Russell’s trial, sentenced her to , 18 years in federal prison, determining that the conspiracy she participated in was “terrifying” and that she “presents as dangerous”.
At Clendaniel’s sentencing, Bredar said he was not punishing Clendaniel because of her beliefs, even though he found them to be “reprehensible” but because of what she was convicted of doing.
Seeking to narrow down a pool of more than 70 potential jurors to a smaller group from which the attorneys could choose a panel of 12 and four alternates, Bredar read from a questionnaire probing respondents about their feelings about white supremacy and neo-Nazism.
He asked the prospective jurors if they belonged to groups affiliated with or denouncing such beliefs.
” Jurors are required to listen to the evidence presented with an open mind”, Bredar said, reading from the questionnaire. ” Do you hold such strong views for or against the ideologies known as neo-Nazism and white supremacy that it would be difficult for you to be a fair and impartial juror in this case”?
After jurors filled out the questionnaire, Bredar followed up with them one at a time in a courtroom away from their peers. Several raised concerns about their ability to be impartial in the context of such beliefs.
” I am strongly against Neo-Nazism, any sort of fascist ideologies”, a Baltimore City Public Schools teacher told Bredar. ” I would like to think I could be impartial, but if I’m being honest, I’m not sure that I could”.
Bredar excused the prospective juror. He did the same to a Jewish woman who emigrated to America from Russia who became emotional discussing how Nazis tore her and her husband’s families apart during World War II and a man who said,” If you think you’re better than someone else because of the color of your skin, that’s ridiculous”.
Jury selection took a day and a half.
Federal authorities say Russell is the founder of , Atomwaffen Division, a violent neo-Nazi hate group that authorities have tied to five murders.
He exploded onto law enforcement’s radar in May 2017, when one of his roommates in Tampa, Florida, killed two others while Russell was out of the house, according to court documents. The , man convicted of murder in the others ‘ deaths , told federal agents he killed them because they bullied him for converting to Islam from the belief system of the white supremacist group Russell founded.
When authorities searched the residence, they found Neo-Nazi paraphernalia, a picture of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and several explosive devices, according to court documents. Russell allegedly admitted the explosives belonged to him.
Russell is currently on supervised release after pleading guilty in federal court in Florida to possessing the explosives and being , sentenced in 2018 to five years in prison.
Russell and Clendaniel developed a romantic and ideological relationship while writing to each other from separate prisons, authorities said. Once they were released, they eventually began plotting to destroy electrical substations in Maryland. They discussed their beliefs and brainstormed what type of rifle could fire a bullet that would pierce thick metal.
Investigators learned about their plot in part by relying on information from a confidential informant who engaged with Russell and Clendaniel online, according to court records. Russell went by” Homunculus” online and Clendaniel by” Nythra88″, court records show.
According to court records, Russell suggested shooting Maryland substations in the winter to create the greatest strain on the electrical grid, telling the confidential informant in an online message, “i think you should wait until like a week after it starts snowing for that other thing we talked about”.
In court Tuesday, Aubin said Russell’s participation amounted to “more than just telling them to do something”, but “providing them insight, conducting research”. He showed jurors an online map Russell sent Clendaniel and the informant of Maryland’s electrical grid.
” He was active and plotting”, Aubin said.
Goldstein countered that the map of substations, along with other material his client provided, was publicly available. He said Russell remained in Florida during the entire alleged conspiracy, suggesting he never intended to participate.
” The two of them planned to draw this attack together. Just the two of them”, Goldstein said of Clendaniel and the confidential informant.
He told jurors that law enforcement coached the informant to elicit incriminating statements from his client. ” This was set up from the beginning”, Goldstein said.
Aubin showed jurors a message in which Russell wrote” Never forget. This is a war for our very existence. This is not a game. This is not a hobby”.
Aubin said the government would call expert witnesses to testify about accelerationism, military-grade ballistics and valuation of electrical substations. Prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum for Clendaniel that a BGE expert determined it would have cost at least$ 75 million to replace the power stations, describing the calculation as an “extremely conservative estimate”.
Aubin also said the FBI covert agent who infiltrated the defendants ‘ white supremacist chats would take the witness stand.
Goldstein said during jury selection that he didn’t intend to call any witnesses unless Russell decided to testify.
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