Sarah Beth Clendaniel, a woman from Catonsville, Maryland, pleaded guilty to conspiring to damage or destroy electrical facilities near Baltimore with the help of a co-conspirator, Brandon C. Russell, for white supremacist reasons to aid in causing the breakdown of society. Both Clendaniel and Russell advocated for the white supremacist ideology of “accelerationism”, which involves violent action to trigger a collapse of the government. The two planned to attack energy facilities in the Baltimore region to disrupt the distribution of electricity to the city between December 2022 and February 2023.
Clendaniel admitted to communicating and planning the attacks on energy facilities with Russell using encrypted communication applications. Both individuals had discussed their plans with a confidential human source, confirming their intentions to attack the Baltimore power grid. Clendaniel used the screen name “Nythra88” to express her support for the attack. In conversations with the source, Clendaniel revealed that she lived near Baltimore, was a felon, and attempted to obtain a rifle unsuccessfully. She asked the source to purchase a rifle for her within the next couple of weeks to “accomplish something worthwhile.”
During these conversations, Clendaniel identified a few possible locations to target and designated the source as the driver while she would be the shooter during the attack. She mentioned targeting five substations, including those in Norrisville, Reisterstown, and Perry Hall, believing that taking out these substations would have significant destructive effects on the city of Baltimore. Clendaniel described how hitting multiple substations in one day would completely destroy the city, emphasizing the importance of hitting the “cores” of the substations to lay the city to waste permanently.
Clendaniel sent the confidential source five links to the “Open Infrastructure Map”, showing the locations of specific Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) electric substations that she and Russell planned to target. Law enforcement officials executed a search warrant at Clendaniel’s residence, recovering various firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Clendaniel, who is a convicted felon, is prohibited from possessing firearms. She pleaded guilty to conspiracy and felony possession of firearms charges and faces up to 20 years in prison for the conspiracy charge and 15 years for the possession charge, with the possibility of a lifetime of supervised release for the conspiracy charge.
Clendaniel’s sentencing is scheduled for September 3, where she could face significant prison time for her involvement in the conspiracy to attack energy facilities near Baltimore. The Department of Justice alleges that Clendaniel and Russell believed that targeting the substations would serve the purpose of “accelerationism” and contribute to breaking down society. Their plan to disrupt the electricity distribution in Baltimore through these attacks was motivated by white supremacist ideologies. The case highlights the dangerous implications of extremist beliefs and the potential for violent actions in pursuit of ideological goals to cause harm and destruction.
