Federal prosecutors do not plan to use evidence at trial that investigators got through a controversial foreign surveillance tool against a neo-Nazi leader who’s accused of plotting to attack the power grid in Maryland, a judge reported on Wednesday.
In a three-page memo, U.S. Senior District Judge James K. Bredar wrote that he was satisfied with that representation from the government. He had a meeting with prosecutors on July 23 and reviewed classified documents at the sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIF, in the Edward A. Garmatz U.S. Courthouse in Baltimore.
“The Court finds that there is no basis on which to believe or suspect that the rights of the Defendant have been violated in any way,” Bredar said. “Accordingly, Defendant is not entitled to notice.”
But Bredar did not address whether law enforcement during its investigation into Brandon Clint Russell used Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Russell, 29, of Orlando, Florida, who’s the founder of the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, is charged with one count of conspiracy to damage an energy facility. The group follows a philosophy of accelerationism, which posits that the current government system is unworkable and looks at causing the collapse of society through violence.
He’s accused of plotting with Sarah Beth Clendaniel, 36, of Catonsville, to attack electrical substations surrounding Baltimore and cause a “cascading failure.”
Clendaniel has since pleaded guilty to conspiracy to damage an energy facility and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. She’s set to be sentenced on Sept. 3.
Russell’s attorneys, Kobie Flowers and Ian Goldstein, alleged that the government planned to use information that investigators obtained or derived through the spying method against their client and did not provide him with notice in violation of the law.
They cited a story from Politico in which a senior FBI official reported that the agency used the surveillance tool to stop a “potentially imminent terrorist attack” in 2023 against critical infrastructure in the United States. The U.S. Department of Energy reported 62 attacks or threats against the power grid in the first quarter of 2023.
That’s along with a speech that FBI Director Christopher Wray later gave to the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Law and National Security.
“If we hadn’t done that query, we would’ve lost valuable time we needed to get ahead of the potential attack,” Wray said.
The American Civil Liberties Union later joined the defense because the case presented a “rare and important opportunity” to challenge warrantless government surveillance.
Russell is set to stand trial on Nov. 12. He’s being held in the Chesapeake Detention Facility, according to jail records.
