Regan Darby Prater, 28, of Tullahoma, Tenn., pleaded guilty on Monday to federal charges of arson and trying to support to a foreign terrorist organization, the U.S. Justic Department stated.
Prater admitted that he used a homemade, napalm-based “sparkler bomb” to destroy facilities at the Highlander Research and Education Center, a school for grassroots leaders and social movements in New Market, Tenn., causing more than $1.2 million in damage, according to court documents.
Before detonating the bomb, Prater, who acknowledged committing the arson due to his white supremacist ideology, spray-painted the symbol of the Iron Guard, a 1930s-era paramilitary arm of the Romanian Nazi Party, in the center’s parking lot.
Prater also admitted that in 2019 he tried to support Hezbollah, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization, including by seeking to supply personally identifiable information of more than 35,000 people purportedly affiliated with the Israeli government.
According to the department, he then provided the document to someone whom he believed to be associated with Hezbollah, stating, among other things, “start the hunt.”
He faces up to 20 years in federal prison, along with related fines, restitution and a term of supervised release to be served upon his release from custody. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 9 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Knoxville.
