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. They said it is his willingness to act on those beliefs that jurors must consider during the trial,

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.

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.