372
submitted 1 month ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

Summary

Brandon Russell, leader of the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, was convicted of conspiring to attack Maryland’s power grid in a terrorist plot.

Prosecutors say Russell recruited Sara Beth Clendaniel to shoot at multiple Baltimore-area substations, aiming to cause mass blackouts and societal disruption.

Clendaniel, who took a plea deal, received 18 years in prison. Russell previously served five years for possessing explosives.

Officials estimate the planned attack would have caused $75 million in damages and widespread outages. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison.

all 21 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org 108 points 1 month ago

Meanwhile, another neo-Nazi is currently cutting wires in the federal bureaucracy totally unchecked.

[-] Etterra@discuss.online 9 points 1 month ago

He's not so much cutting wires as he is flailing a chainsaw uncontrollably at everything within reach.

[-] WamGams@lemmy.ca 29 points 1 month ago

This is a really strange fucking case.

He was inspired by an instruction manual that definitely had ties to formal intelligence, rather it be ours, Russia's or somebody else's.

There was also a Christmas day power grid attack back in 2022 in Washington state that appears connected to that specific instruction manual, but essentially all information regarding that case is wiped.

But going back to this guy the article is about, a few years prior he made contact with an older gentleman who wrote published white terror manifestos. This case forced the FBI to reveal that the older gentleman had been an FBI source since the 1970s and had even funded the publishing of some of his nazi material.

This case is terrifying and the more people who learn about it the better.

[-] jaybone@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

What does it mean to be “an FBI source”?

[-] andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

A informant?

[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 24 points 1 month ago

As a confirmed Nazi, he'll be probably at the top of Trumps next pardon list. He needs hardworking, dedicated people like that in the field.

Project DOGE has already determined that jailing him is wasted money, and has given him a job helping shut down the department of education

[-] rumba@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 month ago

Why not just DOE? He's already put in the research.

[-] adarza@lemmy.ca 18 points 1 month ago

has the dipshit or diaper named an energy secretary yet? new candidate here.

[-] Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago

Wait a second. The plea deal person got 18 years and the orchestrator is only facing a possible 20??

[-] Nougat@fedia.io 13 points 1 month ago

This made me have to dig into articles again.

From what I can tell, "During the sentencing hearing, Judge Bredar explained these charges could have elevated the sentence because the plot promoted domestic terrorism." Then another article refers to her pleading guilty to two charges, and facing a maximum of 20 years in prison. Same charge as Russell got the full 20 for.

Which means that her plea deal was to drop domestic terrorism charges, which surely would have carried an even worse sentence. If it's the difference between getting out when you're 56 or never, you choose 56.

The interesting thing is that Russell apparently wasn't charged with domestic terrorism. Either he's got a crazy good lawyer, or Sarah Beth Clendaniel did something that crossed her over the line.

[-] Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Seems we're missing some details here

[-] shplane@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

TLDR the guy’s white. If he was brown, straight to Guantanamo

[-] Embargo@lemm.ee 5 points 1 month ago

Yeah, man. It only makes sense when you stack it next to 20 years for downloading the Deepseek app. U.S.A!

[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 8 points 1 month ago

The dumbest part is that it might have caused a temporary regional outage, but nothing more. One substation going out isn't going to start a race war.

[-] Bbbbbbbbbbb@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

Among other things, i do feel like this is THE DUMBEST idea in that book (i cant recall the name atm). How does making the lights go out start a massive race war? Like have these people ever had their power go out for a few hours?

[-] AmidFuror@fedia.io 5 points 1 month ago

Right? Smarter would be to open a pizza restaurant in a mostly black neighborhood but only put pictures of Italian celebs on the Wall of Fame.

[-] someguy3@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_blackout_of_1977

But race war is a reach. The shooter years ago in Buffalo Mall (?) thought the same.

[-] DogPeePoo@lemm.ee 3 points 1 month ago

Brandon Russian

this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2025
372 points (99.2% liked)

News

27262 readers
2450 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS