Neo-Nazi sentenced for plot to "destroy" Baltimore with attack on power plants

Baltimore, Maryland - A neo-Nazi was sentenced Wednesday to 18 years in prison for plans to attack public electricity facilities in Baltimore as part of a white supremacist plot, the Department of Justice said.

Sarah Beth Clendaniel, a neo-Nazi and member of the white-supremacist "accelerationist" movement, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for planning an attack on Baltimore power plants.
Sarah Beth Clendaniel, a neo-Nazi and member of the white-supremacist "accelerationist" movement, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for planning an attack on Baltimore power plants.  © IMAGO / Newscom World

Sarah Beth Clendaniel pleaded guilty in May to planning to attack electrical infrastructure and illegal possession of a weapon.

Guided by the co-founder of the notorious Atomwaffen neo-Nazi group, Brandon Russell, Clendaniel had targeted five electrical substations around Baltimore.

Both she and Russell, who is awaiting trial, are adherents of the "accelerationist" movement, a white supremacy ideology that encourages violent action in order to precipitate societal and governmental collapse.

Clendaniel was sentenced to 18 years for planning the attack and 15 years for illegal possession of a weapon as a felon, sentences that she will serve concurrently, the Department of Justice said.

Clendaniel has previously spent time in prison for armed robbery.

"Sarah Beth Clendaniel sought to 'completely destroy' the city of Baltimore by targeting five power substations as a means of furthering her violent white supremacist ideology," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

Clendaniel had said the attacks "would probably permanently completely lay this city to waste," according to her indictment filed in federal court.

The monetary loss associated with the planned attacks would have exceeded $75 million, according to the Department of Justice.

"The defendant plotted to disable the power grid around the entire Baltimore region and cause harm to thousands of people in pursuit of a racially motivated violent extremist agenda," FBI Director Christopher Wray said.

Cover photo: IMAGO / Newscom World

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