Brandon Russell, 29, encouraged his then-girlfriend, Sarah Beth Clendaniel, to carry out the power grid attack, hoping to cause chaos in furtherance of their shared white supremacist views, according to prosecutors. The two were arrested in February 2023 — before their plans were executed.

The white supremacist and neo-Nazi beliefs of a Florida man accused of plotting to destroy Baltimore’s power grid are not up for debate in federal court over the next two weeks, a prosecutor and defense attorney agreed at the outset of his trial Tuesday.

The trial for a man charged in an alleged plot​ to destroy the power grid in the Baltimore region in furtherance of his neo-Nazi beliefs.