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The attorney for a neo-Nazi man on trial in Maryland for allegedly conspiring to destroy power stations implored jurors to keep this in mind: Prosecutors will try to get you to hate him.
Brandon Russell, 29, has long held disdain for people who aren't White, according to prosecutors, and was a leader in the white supremacy movement.
"These beliefs are repulsive to most people," acknowledged the lawyer, Ian Goldstein, "and they no doubt will make you angry."
But behind such a reaction, Goldstein said, was the critical legal question: What evidence is there that Russell, a resident of Florida, orchestrated a plot to knock out power to the city of Baltimore to sow social chaos?
Federal prosecutors are slated to make that case over the next two weeks at the U.S. District Courthouse in Baltimore. They are expected to present about 200 exhibits, many of them documents pulled from Russell's phone and computer. Among the witnesses they'll call, three will be allowed to protect their identities by wearing light disguises and testify under pseudonyms, according to court filings.
Russell specifically advocated "accelerationism," according to prosecutors, which holds that society is irreparable and violent actions are needed to precipitate government collapse and the creation of a white ethno-state. Russell zeroed in on an attack of five electrical substations around Baltimore to cut off power to the city, according to prosecutors.
"The defendant was a man of action," Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Aubin said in opening statements. "He prided himself on action."
But Goldstein said the power station plot was instead cooked up by a co-defendant in the case - Sarah Beth Clendaniel, who pleaded guilty and was recently sentenced to 18 years in the case - and a government informant. Clendaniel lived in the Baltimore area while Russell lived in Florida.
"He was not involved in the conspiracy," Goldstein said, adding that his client nevertheless became the focus of the case: "The one they really disliked, the one they really wanted to target, was Brandon Russell."
In 2015, Russell co-founded the Atomwaffen Division, which prosecutors have called a National Socialist group that "advocated for racially or ethnically motivated violence." About three years later, while incarcerated, he began writing letters to Clendaniel, who was locked up in a different facility. "At some point, they developed a romantic relationship that continued after their respective releases from incarceration," prosecutors wrote.
Russell also began communicating with a government informant about infrastructure attacks, according to prosecutors.
On Dec. 3, 2022, according to prosecutors, Russell messaged the informant and stated that "someone else i know in maryland … is gonna be doing same thing as you."
Russell later told the informant the woman was "serious and can be trusted." He recommended targeting transformers because they are "custom made and could take almost a year to replace," according to court records. He also said the attack would be most effective after a winter storm, "when most people are using max electricity."
Russell also told the informant that because of Clendaniel's criminal record, she was struggling to get a rifle to shoot up substations, according to court filings, so he asked the informant to help her get a new weapon.
"For all their work," Aubin told jurors, "they were unsuccessful."
On Feb. 3, 2023, federal agents arrested Russell in Florida and Clendaniel in Maryland. Prosecutors made it clear in court filings and their opening statement in court this week that evidence found in Russell's electronic devices or evidence from his online postings will be a big part of their case.
On various dates, according to prosecutors, Russell posted a flow chart of various actions, including "electrical failure" to achieve "total chaos" and "accession to power."
"Much of the government's evidence is derived from the defendant's posting and reposting of neo-Nazi ideology that advocates the fall of society through accelerationism," prosecutors said in court filings.
Russell's attorney, Goldstein, said the only conspiracy in the case was between Clendaniel and the government informant.
At the time, he said, Clendaniel thought that she was dying from medical conditions and wanted to leave a legacy. Her detailed conversations about attacking the substations were with the informant. "Just the two of them," Goldstein told jurors.
Instead, he said, federal agents targeted Russell and drew statements out of him. "This was a setup from the beginning," he said.
Much of Russell's online activity being presented to jurors, Goldstein added, is information that can be found on Google or open websites that, for instance, give the locations of power stations around the world. "Sharing a public website somehow makes him part of the conspiracy," Goldstein argued.
In filings before the trial, prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge James Bredar to take extraordinary measures to protect the identity of three of its undercover witnesses for their safety and so they could continue working undercover.
The judge said he had to weigh that request against the right of the defendant to confront those testifying against them.
"This is a close question," Bredar wrote. "But the Court concludes that, under the particular circumstances of this case, certain protective measures are warranted and will not impermissibly encroach on Defendant's Confrontation Clause rights."
While stressing he wasn't judging Russell's guilt, he noted what prosecutors had alleged in terms of safety. "The court cannot ignore the broader context of this case. Russell is accused of being the founder and leader of a neo-Nazi organization with violent aspirations," the judge wrote.
He said he was also swayed by how the witnesses will be used: authenticating messages and recordings of conversations allegedly involving Russell.
Bredar also described how he expected the light disguises to play out, citing prosecutors' examples of altered facial hair, hairstyle or dress style.
"It is the court's expectation and understanding that it will not be apparent to the jury that the witnesses are in disguise," Bredar wrote, "and that the disguises will not impair the jury's ability to evaluate the witness's facial expressions and general demeanor."
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