A Maryland woman who pleaded guilty to a neo-Nazi plot to attack multiple energy substations surrounding Baltimore was sentenced Wednesday to 18 years in prison and a lifetime of supervision upon her release, according the U.S.Attorney's Office for Maryland.Sarah Beth Clendaniel pleaded guilty in May to federal conspiracy and firearms charges.Clendaniel communicated her plans to use a high-powered rifle to shoot through key infrastructure at five substations that the U.S.
government estimated could have caused roughly $75 million in damage, had the plot not been foiled, according to prosecutors.MORE: Maryland woman pleads guilty to alleged plot to attack Baltimore power stationsClendaniel and a co-defendant still set to face trial, Brandon Russell -- who co-founded the neo-Nazi group AtomWaffen -- believed the destruction of the substations would lead to a "cascading failure" of Baltimore's electrical grid that would "permanently completely lay this city to waste," Clendaniel said in recorded conversations with a confidential informant, according to federal prosecutors.Russell had been incarcerated when the two first met, stemming from a 2018 conviction related to his possession of an unregistered destructive device, officials said.A photo of a person believed to be Sarah Clendaniel is included in a Department of Justice complaint charging her with conspiracy to destroy an energy facility.Department of Justice Prosecutors described the scheme as a racism-fueled plot to spark mass chaos in the majority-Black city."If we can pull off what I'm hoping ...this would be legendary," Clendaniel was quoted in charging documents telling the informant.MORE: Suspected white supremacists arrested in plot to attack power stations, destroy Baltimore: ProsecutorsClendaniel agreed that if she were to carry out the attacks the total costs of repairs to the energy facilities would have exceeded $100,000, according to plea documents.The pair crafted their plot to shoot up the five su...