Maryland Woman Sentenced for Power Substation Plot

Sarah Beth Clendaniel, a 36-year-old woman from Maryland, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for conspiring to attack multiple energy substations in Baltimore as part of a neo-Nazi plot. Clendaniel, who espoused white supremacist views, communicated plans to use a high-powered rifle to shoot at key infrastructure, which could have caused an estimated $75 million in damages. U.S. District Judge James Bredar emphasized the potential catastrophe of her actions and noted that Clendaniel remained a threat to public safety. Her co-defendant, Brandon Russell, co-founder of the neo-Nazi group AtomWaffen, is awaiting trial and had previously been incarcerated for possession of a destructive device. Both were on probation while plotting the attacks, which prosecutors characterized as a racist scheme intended to create chaos in a predominantly Black city. Clendaniel's actions were seen as an expression of extremist beliefs, with the judge expressing skepticism about her claims of abandoning those views.