What The Hell America!

A federal criminal court case against Atomwaffen Division co-founder Brandon Clint Russell provided a glimpse into the sources, tools and tactics that the Biden administration used to penetrate and dismantle a loose, international network of neo-Nazi terrorists known as “Terrorgram.”

Russell, 29, was found guilty on Feb. 3 of conspiring to damage an energy facility, after a six-day trial at a federal court in Baltimore. A mostly white jury deliberated for less than an hour before reaching a verdict.

Over the course of the trial, part of which Hatewatch attended, prosecutors presented voluminous evidence confirming Russell as a central figure within “Terrorgram,” a neo-Nazi collective that the U.S. Department of State named a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group in July. “Terrorgram” refers to a loosely organized network of chats on the messaging app Telegram, where neo-Nazis shared instructions for making bombs and 3D-printed weapons, glorified white supremacist terrorists as “saints,” and plotted attacks on infrastructure, minorities, public figures and politicians.

Affiliates and fans of Terrorgram have conducted multiple successful and aborted violent plots in the United States and abroad.

For fear of retaliation, the court granted multiple witnesses the opportunity to testify anonymously.

‘Lay this city to waste’

The government’s case against Russell contended that he and Sarah Beth Clendaniel, 36, his co-conspirator and girlfriend, plotted an attack on electrical substations in the greater Baltimore area. Though the city’s Black population has declined in recent years, its population is still predominantly Black. 

Russell has been a leader in a wing of the neo-Nazi movement that advocates for racist violence to bring about a whites-only state. Russell co-founded the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division in 2015.

Since then, Atomwaffen Division members have been linked to five murders, in addition to various harassment plots and weapons or explosives charges. This included Russell, whom authorities arrested and later incarcerated on explosives-related charges in Florida in 2017. Upon his release from prison in 2021, Russell continued living in Florida and became involved with Terrorgram.  

Russell created and distributed Terrorgram propaganda online under multiple pseudonyms, including a publication that portrayed attacks on infrastructure as more impactful than racist mass shootings. At trial, government lawyers showed Russell sharing “Make It Count,” one of four publications that “Terrorgram Collective” released between 2021 and 2022, on 4chan, a message board that is popular with the online right. In the document, the author, or authors, wrote: “While you can shoot a grocery store full of [N-word]s, you are treating the symptoms of the cancer, not the cause. You must select targets that do the most damage to the system and spark revolutions and chaos.”

Russell and Clendaniel’s planned attack appeared to be modeled after a 2013 shooting in Metcalf, California, in which unknown assailants fired on a power station outside San Jose. The attack knocked out 17 transformers and caused more than $15 million in damage.

During court testimony, authorities estimated that Russell and Clendaniel’s attack, if successful, would have cost the Baltimore region far more — roughly $75 million. Some of the individual transformers that Russell and Clendaniel targeted would have cost up to $6 million to replace, according to testimony from an expert witness from Baltimore Gas and Electric.

“It would probably completely, permanently lay this city to waste,” Clendaniel, who used the pseudonyms “Kali” and “Nythra88” online, said of the planned attack on a Jan. 29, 2023, call with a government source shortly before her arrest.

Through invite-only chats on Terrorgram, Russell built relationships with a source acting on behalf of the U.S. government, as well as a federal agent posing as a right-wing extremist online. The government’s case substantiates prior Hatewatch reporting on Russell’s involvement in Terrorgram, where he appeared to encourage attacks on infrastructure throughout 2022 and early 2023 under the pseudonyms “Ouroborus,” “Homunculus” and “Raccoon.” 

Federal authorities arrested Russell and Clendaniel for their involvement in the plot in February 2023.

Government’s case shows extent of penetration into Terrorgram

The government’s case against Russell relied on the testimony of two confidential human sources (CHS) — a term that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies use to describe certain informants who collect information on behalf of the government — as well as an FBI employee. All three were members of numerous private neo-Nazi Telegram chats along with Russell.

The case is just one of more than a dozen investigations into Terrorgram that arose out of the Biden administration’s push to combat domestic terrorism and white supremacist violence.

While testifying, the two confidential human sources wore what appeared to be disguises. Based on photos of chats presented at the trial, the source identified as “CHS-1” in the indictment against Russell and his co-conspirator Clendaniel used the name “Teddy K” on Wire and Telegram, the two messaging apps that Russell and Clendaniel used to plan their plot. To the court, he introduced himself as “Jackson.” He wore thick rimmed glasses and wore what appeared to be a fake nose and mustache. His hair, which was tinged with gray, appeared to be dyed.

“Jacob Thompson,” another government source, appeared to wear a disguise at trial consisting of a black wig.

Both men said they worked as sources for the federal government for about four years. “Jackson” reported to have earned $70,000 in payments and reimbursements, while “Thompson” said he received $120,000.

“Jackson” said he worked as a federal contractor for a company in Maryland advising on economic sanctions at the time he began serving as an informant for the FBI. He testified that he now works as a “researcher” focused on “extremism and domestic terrorism,” though he did not name his former or current employer at trial.

Thomas Smith, who described himself as an online covert employee of the FBI, testified that he interacted with Russell, then using the handle “Ouroborus,” on Telegram and Wire. The earliest interaction between Russell and Smith that government attorneys introduced at trial took place in April 2022.

“Jackson” testified that he first began communicating with Russell, then posting on Telegram under the username “Homunculus,” in June 2022. “Thompson” said he first sent screenshots of communications with Russell, who was then using the handle “Ouroborus,” to the FBI in October 2022.

The trial featured excerpts from more than half a dozen prominent Terrorgram chats. A staff member at SITE Intelligence, a for-profit group that tracks extremism, testified under an alias and disguise about Telegram chats, of which Russell was a member.

Russell encouraged attacks on substations, power lines

Evidence presented at trial showed Russell discussing targeting electrical substations, in addition to overhead power lines, with multiple witnesses who testified on behalf of the government throughout fall 2022.

Russell sent “Jackson” and Clendaniel links to maps detailing U.S. infrastructure, material identifying vulnerable parts of a specific transformer, and a list of substations in the Midwest and on the East Coast that appeared to be drawn from an anti-tech anarchist online zine called “The Garden.” The same PDF includes a detailed account of the 2013 Metcalf sniper attack, which Russell appeared to view as inspiration.

“Putting holes in transformers though is the greatest thing someone can do,” Russell, writing under the pseudonym “Ouroborus,” told “Jackson” in a message on Oct. 14, 2022. “But that takes a bit more planning and stuff.”

In addition to targeting substations, Russell also encouraged “Jackson” and Smith to plan smaller attacks on electrical infrastructure, including power lines. Russell shared Terrorgram propaganda in group chats and encouraged the two men to use Mylar balloons, a popular and easily accessible form of consumer balloon, to cause widescale electrical outages. In one exchange with Smith, Russell described using Mylar balloons as “easy” and a tactic that ensures you “can’t get caught.”

Mylar is a thin polyester film. Balloons made of this material are often covered with a metallic foil that can conduct electricity. When filled with helium, these balloons can float in the air freely and cause a power outage or explosion if they hit utility poles or electrical wires. In August 2024, for instance, a Mylar balloon that hit power lines near a New Orleans water treatment plant caused officials to place much of the city’s residents under a 24-hour boil water advisory.

Russell recruited for neo-Nazi group

In chats shown at trial, Russell appeared to present himself as a recruiter for the National Socialist Resistance Front (NSRF). Ryan Hatfield, a former Atomwaffen Division cell leader, founded NSRF under a different name in 2020.

Though significantly smaller than Atomwaffen Division at its peak, NSRF used similar aesthetics, blending World War II-era Nazi imagery with hyper-stylized footage of paramilitary trainings.

Russell appeared to try to recruit “Jackson” to NSRF in fall 2022. Russell said to “Jackson” that these prospective members included people from Maryland and the Carolinas.

NSRF shared propaganda on social media appearing to encourage attacks on infrastructure. On Nov. 13, 2022, NSRF posted a black-and-white picture of a man in paramilitary gear standing next to what appears to be a substation. The photo includes the caption “Bring It All Down.”

On Dec. 18, 2022, members of NSRF displayed a banner with the same caption, several swastikas and the number “1488,” another white nationalist symbol, over a highway overpass in Moore County, North Carolina. The banner drop took place roughly 10 miles away from a substation in the same county that an unknown assailant shot roughly two weeks prior, on Dec. 3, 2022. The outage resulted in one death and left 40,000 customers without power. After local media outlets speculated whether the two incidents were connected, NSRF’s Telegram account shared an article on Dec. 19, 2022, related to the incident with the caption: “Interesting. Just one banner drop, and we’re blamed for all sorts of misdeeds. The next time that we do one, they’ll probably blame us for the OKC [Oklahoma City] bombing.”

Russell encouraged “Jackson” to watch a video about the Moore County attack prior to his and Clendaniel’s arrest. On Jan. 31, 2023, Russell, under the pseudonym “Ouroborus,” sent “Jackson” a YouTube video about the attack in Moore County during a discussion thread about choosing possible targets.

Authorities in Moore County have not identified the perpetrators of the substation attack.

Hatfield, writing under the pseudonym “Ryan Arthur,” announced NSRF’s formal disbandment on Nov. 8, 2024, on American Futurist, a website operated by former Atomwaffen Division members.

The future of Terrorgram

At Terrorgram’s peak in 2019 to 2020, thousands of users subscribed to channels affiliated with it on Telegram. Even after moderators at Telegram, as well as the Apple and Google app stores, banned or restricted access to some public facing Terrorgram channels, its administrators adapted, using private channels or chats to spread their terroristic content to a trusted network of users.

Still, even as the network’s popularity and spread on Telegram has crumbled in recent years, Terrorgram publications have inspired a range of successful and attempted attacks. The Department of Justice’s announcement of charges against Terrorgram administrators Dallas Humber, 34, and Matthew Allison, 37, who were arrested in September 2024 and described as “leaders” of a “transnational terrorist group,” cites at least three.

In 2022, a Slovakian man cited Terrorgram as an inspiration for murdering two people at a gay bar in Bratislava. Officials charged a New Jersey man in July 2024 for soliciting another to destroy energy facilities. Then, in August 2024, a man who stabbed five people at a mosque in Turkey referenced white supremacist mass murderers like Timothy McVeigh as “saints,” a term popular among Terrorgram affiliates.

All told, according to Wired, there are “more than a dozen separate federal prosecutions around the United States that involve people alleged to be core Terrorgram Collective members of individuals allegedly inspired toward violent attacks on infrastructure or civilians.” The collective’s publications have been cited in other attacks, including a January 2025 school shooting in Antioch, Tennessee, where a Black teenager who espoused neo-Nazi beliefs linked to three Terrorgram publications in his screed.

Early in his administration, former President Joe Biden implemented a strategy to combat domestic terrorism that gave special attention to combating white supremacists and antigovernment militias. In addition to bolstering intelligence sharing and preventing recruitment, that administration encouraged the FBI and DOJ through additional funding to investigate and prosecute domestic terrorist activities. Former agents expressed concern to Hatewatch that the current administration might deprioritize tackling white supremacist violence.

“Domestic terrorism, where it might be the number one priority in the counterterrorism division, might drop to number four or five,” David Gomez, a retired FBI agent who specialized in counterterrorism, told Hatewatch. “Because [FBI Director] Kash Patel doesn’t want them working on his constituents. Or Trump doesn’t want them working on those people.”

Already, the administration has pardoned over 1,600 participants charged for their involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection. In mid-March, the FBI froze the assets of accounts associated with several Environmental Protection Agency grant recipients, including Habitat for Humanity.

“The Jan. 6 pardons and the demand for a list of agents that worked on those cases sent a clear message to law enforcement officials that any efforts to investigate far-right violence will not only be wasted, but potentially dangerous to their careers,” Mike German, a former FBI agent who is now a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, told Hatewatch.

Though German said it is “likely” that there would be “a drop in the number and scope of these investigations,” he added that the visibility and persistence of white supremacist violence would make it hard for the agency to ignore.

“They will always have cases to point to when they want to dismiss criticism that they are failing to address white supremacist violence, much the way the FBI has done that in the past,” German said. “But I doubt there will be proactive investigations or broad efforts to connect the dots as we saw most recently in the Terrorgram Collective indictments.”

Russell faces upward of 20 years in prison. His sentencing date is scheduled for June 17.

Image at top: Brandon Russell, co-founder of the the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, was found guilty of conspiring in 2023 to damage an energy facility. (Photo of Russell from the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office; Illustration by SPLC)