Orlando neo-Nazi accused of plotting to destroy Baltimore gets trial date
An Orlando man facing federal charges in connection to a racist plot to destroy the City of Baltimore will face his latest jury this summer.
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FBI agents arrested Brandon Russell, a known neo-Nazi leader, at his Orlando home last February.
Russell was accused of assisting a woman, who is also facing charges, in a plan to destroy multiple electrical substations surrounding the predominantly Black city.
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According to reports, the pair hoped that by crippling the city’s power grid for an extended period of time, mass violence would erupt.
“Russell provided instructions and location information,” Tom Sobocinski, the FBI special agent in charge of the Baltimore field office, said. “He described attacking the power transformers as the greatest thing somebody can do.”
Police surrounded this Orlando-area home Friday night, carrying out boxes of stuff into a waiting van.
Today, prosecutors announced one of the occupants, 27-year-old Brandon Russell, was arrested for plotting to bring down the Baltimore, MD power grid. @WFTV pic.twitter.com/K3mkqPHOy9— Nick Papantonis WFTV (@NPapantonisWFTV) February 6, 2023
Electrical grid attacks have long been a favorite plot of white supremacists and other extremists given the infrastructure’s known vulnerabilities. Experts said knocking out a handful of substations in one area could cut power for weeks or months.
Following Russell’s arrest, users on one message board mocked him for getting caught.
“This has got to be one of the easiest crimes ever,” one user wrote in a profanity- and slur-laden thread.
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Russell was no stranger to the justice system. He was imprisoned after authorities discovered bomb-making materials in his Tampa home after his roommate killed their other two roommates and was released in 2017.
It was during his time in prison that Russell began corresponding with Sarah Clendaniel, the woman charged alongside him in the Baltimore plot.
The trial of Russell and Clendaniel is scheduled to begin in Maryland District Court July 8 and wrap up by the end of the month.
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