Two people charged with conspiracy to damage energy facilities – a neo-Nazi leader and a woman with whom he had a personal relationship – allegedly planned to attack electrical substations encircling Baltimore and “completely destroy” the entire city, according to federal court documents.
The Justice Department has charged Brandon Clint Russell and Sarah Beth Clendaniel with conspiracy to damage energy facilities, alleging that the Maryland-focused plot was driven by ethnically or racially motivated extremist beliefs.
They “conspired to inflict maximum harm on the power grid,” Tom Sobocinski, who heads the FBI’s field office in Baltimore, said during a news conference Monday. “The accused were not just talking, but taking steps to fulfill their threats and further their extremist goals.”
The charges come as domestic violence experts have warned that attempts by extremist groups to attack power facilities are trending up.
Clendaniel will make her initial appearance at Baltimore’s federal courthouse at 2 p.m. ET, and Russell will appear at a courthouse in Florida at 1:30 p.m. ET, according to the Justice Department.
CNN was unable to reach the defendants or their lawyers for comment.
In a recorded voice conversation last month, Clendaniel allegedly told the FBI source that targeting the facilities would “completely destroy this whole city.” She and Russell allegedly sent the source information about the facilities, and according to the charging papers, Russell sent the source a YouTube video about a recent substation attack in North Carolina.
The FBI also obtained a document allegedly written by Clendaniel that authorities say resembles a manifesto. In it, she allegedly references Hitler, as well as Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and a perpetrator of a terrorist attack in Netherlands.
Russell, according…
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