Unsealed federal charges reveal white supremacist terror plot

CW: This story contains graphic imagery and racial expletives. 

A recent investigation by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hatewatch has revealed the inner workings of a white supremacist conspiracy to attack critical energy infrastructure. Brandon Clint Russell, the co-founder of the neo-nazi group Atomwaffen Division, and his girlfriend, Sarah Beth Clendaniel, have been federally charged with plotting to attack “multiple electrical substations in Maryland.” 

Russell had already served time in a federal prison when a bomb-making material was discovered in his home during a 2018 homicide investigation involving two other Atomwaffen members.   

“This alleged planned attack threatened lives and would have left thousands of Marylanders in the cold and dark,” said U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron for the District of Maryland in a statement. 

The criminal complaint alleges that Russell disseminated information about the plans to a “confidential human source” referenced as “CHS-1” in court documents. 

Hatewatch reported that just before the New Year, Russell, in his online discussions, introduced the informant to “someone else [he knew] in Maryland [who] is [going] be doing the same thing as you.” 

“Russell repeatedly discussed attacking power infrastructure with CHS-1,” according to the Hatewatch report. 

“The main thing that keeps the anti-white system going is the power grid [sic],”Russell explains in his correspondence with CHS-1. Russell maintained that it was “easier than you think,” and that “power distribution substations are peppered all over the country.” 

This infrastructure, Russell explains, is a “sitting duck. Easy prey.”

Another document — that Hatewatch believes was circulated by Russell via the messaging app Telegram — entitled “Make It Count” maintains that such attacks will create a Helter Skelter-type scenario. 

The “collapse of the current system is the only means of saving our white race,” reads the preface.  

“While you can shoot a grocery store full of [n-word]s, you are treating the symptoms of the cancer, not the cause,” it reads. “You must select targets that do the most damage to the system and spark revolution and chaos.” 

The Hatewatch report also notes that Russell’s plans match similar attempts by Atomwaffen’s predecessors to attack power sources. Additionally, in 2022, the Department of Energy reported that there was a spike in what they call “human-caused interruptions.” Last year saw 163 such cases. For reference, 51 interruptions were reported in 2018.  

And while not every case of human interruption is linked to neo-nazi groups, this increase raises questions as to what the cause may be. 

Ironically, right-wing media figures like Tucker Carlson have accosted the Biden administration for failing to address mysterious assaults on energy infrastructure.

“In North Carolina this winter, for example, nearly 50,000 people lost their power in freezing temperatures when somebody shot up two energy substations and so on,” Carlson exclaimed in the opening monologue of his February 13th show. 

“Why is it not a big story? Oh, it’s not a story at all.”