"A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a white supremacist to 18 years in prison for conspiring to attack Baltimore’s power grid in hopes of provoking a race war.
Sarah Beth Clendaniel pleaded guilty in May to plotting with Brandon C. Russell to destroy electrical infrastructure in the city. According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), Clendaniel and Russell, who is awaiting trial, subscribe to the theory of accelerationism, a belief popular among extremists that fomenting chaos and conflict will lead to a broader societal upheaval, often but not exclusively along racial lines.
Clendaniel and Russell, using encrypted communications, told an FBI source between 2022 and 2023 that they planned to attack five Baltimore substations at once, per the DOJ. They picked targets that formed a circle around the city, meaning they would “completely lay this city to waste if we could do that successfully,” the department said Clendaniel told an associate.
In January 2023, Clendaniel, a convicted felon, asked the source to buy a rifle for her as part of her goal to be the “shooter” in the planned attack, according to the DOJ."
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