Brandon Russell, a 29-year-old neo-Nazi leader, was convicted last week for conspiring to attack power stations around Baltimore in an attempt to trigger a citywide blackout. A Maryland jury took less than an hour to find him guilty, rejecting his defense that he had been entrapped by the FBI. Russell, who previously served time in federal prison for explosives possession, now faces up to 20 years behind bars.

Russell, a native of the Bahamas, was once a student at the University of Florida and a member of the National Guard, but he abandoned that path to become a central figure in the far-right extremist movement. He founded the Atomwaffen Division, a violent neo-Nazi group linked to five murders and multiple bomb plots before federal authorities dismantled it in 2020. His trial provided insight into the Biden administration’s efforts to crack down on far-right domestic terrorism, as well as the FBI’s reliance on confidential informants and private intelligence firms in its investigation.

Russell was deeply involved with the Terrorgram Collective, an extremist propaganda network that was officially designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department in one of its final actions. The United Kingdom classified the group as an extremist organization in May 2024, while Australia has imposed counter-terrorism financial sanctions against it. More than two dozen cases linked to the Terrorgram Collective are currently active across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and South America. The group has been accused of inspiring multiple attacks, including the 2022 mass shooting in Slovakia, a knife attack in Turkey, and school shootings in Madison, Wisconsin, and Antioch, Tennessee.

The plot that led to Russell’s arrest also involved his Baltimore-based girlfriend, Sarah Clendaniel, who pleaded guilty last fall and is serving an 18-year sentence. The FBI began its investigation after a confidential informant, using the alias “TeddyK” (a reference to Unabomber Ted Kaczynski), infiltrated the group. The informant, a former federal contractor, testified in disguise under the alias “Jackson.” Russell had introduced Clendaniel to the informant through encrypted messaging apps, and the three discussed plans to sabotage six power substations in Baltimore.

If successful, the attack could have plunged large parts of the city into darkness and caused an estimated $70 million in damage. Prosecutors presented evidence showing that Russell had provided Clendaniel with open-source maps of electrical infrastructure and forwarded documents promoting attacks on power stations. When Clendaniel was unable to legally purchase a firearm due to a prior felony conviction, Russell attempted to help her obtain a 3D-printed “ghost gun” instead.

The trial was held under heightened security. Two of Russell’s associates in the Terrorgram Collective, Dallas Humber and Matthew Allison, were caught last fall attempting to identify government witnesses set to testify against him. They now face federal charges for providing material support to terrorism. Inside the courtroom, members of the public were required to lock up their electronic devices, and security officers conducted thorough searches before allowing anyone to enter. A white-noise machine was used to obscure sidebar conversations between the judge and attorneys.

Several government witnesses, including an employee from the SITE Intelligence Group, a private intelligence contractor, testified under aliases and in disguise. SITE, which was criticized during the “war on terror” for exaggerating threats, has more recently shifted its focus to tracking far-right extremism. Its head of information technology testified that the organization provided the FBI with exports of Terrorgram Collective’s Telegram channels, including a post in which Russell wrote: “I wish that people would go for substations, like the Metcalf sniper attack.” This was a reference to the 2013 sabotage of an electrical substation near San Jose, California, in which 17 transformers were disabled by gunfire.

Over the summer, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) intervened on Russell’s behalf, challenging the government’s use of surveillance obtained through Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows warrantless wiretapping. The ACLU’s attempt to force disclosure of how the government gathered its intelligence was unsuccessful. However, the U.S. government’s refusal to confirm or deny the use of FISA surveillance, combined with the UK’s classification of Terrorgram as an extremist group and the involvement of Five Eyes intelligence-sharing partners, suggests that Russell and his network were considered a high priority by Western security agencies.

The prosecution’s case relied heavily on electronic evidence, including recovered messages, screenshots, and hours of audio recordings made by the FBI informant. “Jackson,” the informant, was revealed to have deep ties to the neo-Nazi movement himself. He was paid $70,000 by the FBI over four years and had been listed as an administrator for the Maryland chapter of “White Lives Matter,” a white nationalist group.

Russell had a history of advocating attacks on power infrastructure. Thomas Smith, an FBI employee who posed as another neo-Nazi online, testified that Russell had encouraged him to shoot up substations and even walked him through how to sabotage power lines using Mylar balloons. Screenshots of their conversations, which were introduced as evidence, showed Russell boasting about prior sabotage attempts.

Despite warnings from extremism experts that Russell was likely to reoffend, he was released from prison in 2021 with minimal restrictions on his activities. Under supervised release, he was able to reconnect with far-right associates and travel freely within Florida, where he frequently met with fellow extremists. Messages presented in court showed Russell bragging in January 2023, just weeks before his arrest, that he could “go anywhere in this fucking state and hang out with cool NS [National Socialist] people I know.”

Russell and Clendaniel’s extremism extended beyond neo-Nazism. Evidence recovered from Clendaniel’s apartment included references to the Order of Nine Angles (O9A), a violent Satanist ideology that has been linked to acts of terrorism. Among the items displayed in court was a blood-soaked piece of paper featuring O9A symbols and references to “Nythra,” one of the group’s so-called Dark Gods. Russell was also found to have promoted O9A literature among fellow extremists.

In the UK, lawmakers have debated banning the Order of Nine Angles as an extremist group due to its links to terrorist plots. While O9A’s influence remains largely underground, its overlap with neo-Nazi movements like Atomwaffen Division has raised concerns among counterterrorism officials.

Russell is scheduled to be sentenced on June 17. He remains in custody at the Chesapeake Detention Center.