Prosecutors say Brandon Russell was the leader of a neo-Nazi group who orchestrated a plot to knock out power to the city of Baltimore to sow social chaos.

BALTIMORE (AP) — As the founder of a Florida-based neo-Nazi group goes on trial for conspiring to attack Maryland’s power grid, his abhorrent beliefs aren’t really the point, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

The white supremacist and neo-Nazi beliefs of a Florida man accused of plotting to destroy Baltimore’s power grid are not up for debate in federal court over the next two weeks, a prosecutor and defense attorney agreed at the outset of his trial Tuesday.