this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2024
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Sarah Beth Clendaniel, who pleaded guilty to trying to attack and destroy the power grid in the Baltimore region, was sentenced to 18 years in prison with lifetime supervision post-release.

Prosecutors said Clendaniel, 36, from Catonsville, planned to blow up power stations around Baltimore to destabilize the government in a white supremacist plot

According to prosecutors, the attack would have resulted in $75 million in damages and caused power outages for much of the state. 

This sentence comes after Clendaniel accepted a plea deal and ultimately was found guilty of the crimes in May.

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[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 43 points 1 month ago (13 children)

Agents recovered various firearms from her bedroom and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Clendaniel is prohibited from possessing a firearm because she is a convicted felon.

Evidence used in the trial included transcripts of recorded phone conversations between Clendaniel and a confidential informant, revealing that she wanted to obtain a high-powered rifle to shoot through substations in Reisterstown, Perry Hall, White Marsh, and more locations.

I tried to find data about how seriously straw purchases are being treated these days, as enforcement always seemed very lax. This is how this person seems to have obtained her weaponry. A straw purchase in the case of firearms is when someone buys a firearm with the intent of it ending up in the hands of someone else. It is common to have a partner or acquaintance purchase a gun to get around the background check.

I searched for "straw purchase jail" to try to find conviction rates, and oddly all the results looked to be only from Pennsylvania, and are pretty recent. There does seem to be some enhanced penalties put into place nationally, after a number of mass shootings traced back to straw purchases.

Prosecutors say Clendaniel has been in communication with her co-defendant, Russell, through Dallas Humber, an alleged transnational terrorist group leader from California. Humber is accused of soliciting hate crimes, the murder of Federal officials, and conspiring to provide materials to terrorists. The communication between Clendaniel, Humber and Russell persisted until July 2024.

Prosecutors allege this communication shows that Clendaniel is still conspiring during recorded phone calls while incarcerated.

Before receiving the sentence, Clendaniel addressed the courtroom saying she is more likely to hurt herself than others. She says she still retains her national socialist beliefs, which she has had since she was 13 years old, but that she would not act on them.

Judge Bredar explained that she is not being sentenced for her beliefs, rather she is being put behind bars because she was prepared to act on them and cause significant harm. He said he is not convinced she wouldn't act on them in the future.

And she has learned nothing. Hopefully she will continue to incriminate herself on a regular basis to ensure she serves the full 18 years of her sentence.

[–] mosiacmango@lemm.ee 26 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (12 children)

Dallas Humber was one of the lead members of the large nazi "terrorgram" network on telegram. She was also recently arrested after France forced Telegram to start enforcing the law by arresting its billionaire CEO.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 18 points 1 month ago (11 children)

Humber has one heck of a backstory. Meth addict dildo seller turned Nazi audiobook narrator.

I don't know how to feel about the arrest of the person running the platform. I typically lean toward siding on it's the responsibility of the posters for what they post, but at the same time, if you are knowledgeable people are using something of yours for a crime, and not just anything, but terrorism or supporting murder, it seems like he should definitely have some share of the responsibility for not even taking any form of action.

[–] mosiacmango@lemm.ee 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

She was working as a terrorist go between in this case. I guarantee she was involved with hundreds or even thousands of nazi terror plots as the admin of a nazi terror network.

This isn't someone running a tropical fish forum that was negligent and let it become a hotbed for racists. She started and directly participated in many of these plots. I have no sympathy at all.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I don't recall where they all were, but I do remember there being a string of these power station shootings for a while. It's somewhat nice to know the reasoning behind it all now, though also more disturbing seeing how widespread it is and not just a couple of local yahoos. Both these women deserve to put away.

My unsureness was only about the level of responsibility for Durov, though it seems some of his charges are for his complicities in allowing things like this to continue and failing to cooperate with requests to do something from authorities. It does sound like he is now cooperating to turn over any evidence he may have about crimes arranged over Telegram, so why I don't feel this should give him a free pass, it's good he may allow other crimes to be prevented or prosecuted.

I don't follow much of this news lately, as I've just been overwhelmed by it becoming such a regular thing, so I've had to catch up on all these details.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

It's the same logic as terrorists in the middle east, degrade government legitimacy by degrading services and protection. Then offer yourself as the alternative. It's fucked up but it can definitely work. We should not be laughing this shit off. FBI Counter-terror needs to turn it's attention inward because so much of what the alt-right is doing is terrorist stuff related to setting up an insurgency.

[–] Baggins@feddit.uk 1 points 1 month ago

Whole life sentence should be case then.

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