Mother of woman charged in plot to target Maryland power stations not shocked by accusations

BALTIMORE -- A Catonsville woman is in jail after she was arrested and charged with conspiring to attack Baltimore's power grid.

Sarah Beth Clendaniel, 34, along with a Florida man with neo-Nazi ties, are accused of collaborating to attack several substations in the Baltimore area.

The two were in court Monday in Baltimore and Florida on a charge of conspiring to destroy an energy facility, which carries up to 20 years in prison, according to The Washington Post.

A day after FBI and local officials announced the arrest, WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren was the only local television reporter to speak with Clendaniel's mother.

Lanette Clendaniel said that time behind bars escalated her daughter's extremism. It's also where she met Brandon Russell, who prosecutors said is the co-founder of "Atomwaffen," an Orlando-based neo-Nazi group.

Hellgren asked Lanette Clendaniel if she was shocked by the accusations against her daughter.

"No, I am not,"  she replied.

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Lanette Clendaniel, who is now raising her daughter's children, said Clendaniel has Nazi or neo-Nazi views.

"Yes, she definitely held those views," she said of her daughter.

Hellgren asked if she tried to reason with her or discuss the extremism. 

"My philosophy to anyone in the world is watch Independence Day and get a grip. We all live on this planet together. You better get along," the mother said. 

She told WJZ she believes her daughter got into those beliefs while she was in jail for machete armed robberies In Cecil County.

"Our views were different. She knew what I believed, and I knew what she believed," Lanette Clendaniel said. 

Clendaniel, originally from Cecil County, was allegedly recorded telling an FBI informant her plans to shoot energy substations in Norrisville, Reisterstown, Perry Hall, and Baltimore City. 

She is accused of collaborating with Russell.

Lanette Clendaniell said her daughter had a tough upbringing and had anti-establishment views, and she committed the machete robberies to support a heroin addiction.

"I understand where she feels she was coming from," Lanette Clendaniel said. "The decline we're seeing in this country, needs a rude awakening. I think that's one of the main thing she was trying to do is change the course that this country is going in, and trying to do that for her kids."

She shared a photograph from a 2005 family trip to the Grand Canyon and said Sarah "always liked to live on the edge."

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Russell was sentenced to five years in federal prison in 2018 for charges associated with having explosives in his apartment's garage. Federal prosecutors said he planned to use the explosives to harm civilians, nuclear facilities and synagogues.   

Lanette Clendaniel said her daughter had mentioned Russell, but she didn't know much about the plot.

"She had mentioned him," Lanette Clendaniel said. "I didn't discuss her life. She knew I didn't agree with it, so we really didn't go there. I don't know much about her private life."

Russell was on supervised release when in June 2022, he began encouraging an FBI source in an encrypted messenger app to attack substations, according to a criminal complaint. 

In January, Russell put the FBI source in touch with Clendaniel, saying the woman was a felon who was struggling to buy new weapons. The two allegedly began communicating in 2018, when they were imprisoned in separate locations. 

"The accused were not just talking, but taking steps to fulfill their threats and further their extremist goals," said Thomas Sobocinski, special agent in charge of the FBI Baltimore field office. 

Russell allegedly provided instructions and location information to Clendaniel, and described attacking the power transformers as "the greatest thing somebody can do."

In a conversation between the source and Clendaniel, she said she had a terminal illness and was unlikely to live more than a few more months. Officials said she tried to plan the attack and coordinate the purchase of weapons with the source over a phone call.

In her own words, Clendaniel said the attack "would lay this city to waste," according to Sobocinski. 

The FBI also obtained a "manifesto" by Clendaniel that allegedly references Adolf Hitler and Unabomber Ted Kaczynski. 

Lanette Clendaniel did say Sarah Clendaniel had a terminal illness involving failing kidneys and thought that last Christmas would be her final one with her daughter because of the illness.

"The last time she was here was mostly spent in bed the whole time and then trying to spend a little bit of time with her kids," Lanette Clandaniel said when asked whether she felt her daughter was able to carry out a plot like this.

She said she does not plan to go to court and instead will focus on raising her grandchildren. 

"My heavenly father has his plan and his purpose for all things. and whatever his plan is, so be it," Lanette Clendaniel said. 

She told Hellgren, "Unless there's a miracle, she'll most likely die in prison."