Neo-Nazi Gets 18 Years For Racist Plot To Attack Baltimore's Power Grid
Sarah Beth Clendaniel, 36, conspired with Brandon Russell, who co-founded a Florida-based neo-Nazi group, to take down the grid in eastern Maryland and wreak havoc in the process. Now, she's headed to prison for 18 years despite placing the blame on her past addiction and mental health struggles.
The Neo-Nazi couple plotted to cause significant damage to the regional power grid, meant to create chaos in the majority-Black city, according to federal prosecutors.
“It would probably permanently completely lay this city to waste if we could do that successfully,” Clendaniel said to what turned out to be an FBI informant.
The Washington Post reports:
“This would have been an utter and complete catastrophe,” U. S. District Judge James Bredar said from the bench, describing the defendant, Sarah Beth Clendaniel, as a continued threat to public safety.
Clendaniel had earlier admitted to espousing a white-supremacist ideology known as “accelerationism,” which holds that bold actions are needed to cause “societal and government collapse,” according to court records. In late 2022 and 2023, according to prosecutors, she schemed with others to shoot through large transformers at substations around Baltimore to create widespread power outages.