A Tennessee white supremacist who attempted to provide Hezbollah with personal information on more than 35,000 people purportedly affiliated with the Israeli government, urging a suspected operative of the terrorist organization to “Start the hunt,” has been sentenced to 17 years and six months in federal prison.
Regan Darby Prater, 28, of Tullahoma, Tennessee, received the 210-month sentence on October 20 after pleading guilty to arson and attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. According to the Justice Department, Prater also admitted to firebombing a historic civil rights institution in Tennessee in 2019, using a napalm-based incendiary device in an attack motivated by white supremacist ideology.
The case brings together two seemingly contradictory extremist movements: American white supremacism and Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Islamist terrorist organization. Prater’s admitted actions demonstrate how hostility toward Israel can intersect with otherwise distinct extremist ideologies.
Attempt to Provide Hezbollah With Information on 35,000 People
According to federal prosecutors, Prater obtained a document purportedly containing personally identifiable information about more than 35,000 individuals allegedly affiliated with the Israeli government.
On or about October 27, 2019, he transmitted the document to someone he believed was associated with Hezbollah, which the United States has designated a foreign terrorist organization since 1997.
In his federal plea agreement, Prater admitted accompanying the document with several messages, including “As I promised, enjoy,” and “I hope the information in the pdf helps you guys against Israel.”
He also instructed the recipient to “Start the hunt.”
The statements indicate Prater intended the information to assist Hezbollah in targeting individuals associated with Israel. However, federal authorities have not publicly established whether the document contained authentic information or whether its recipient was actually a Hezbollah operative. The attempted transfer was nevertheless sufficient to support the material-support charge to which Prater pleaded guilty.
Firebombing of a Historic Civil Rights Center
The Hezbollah-related offense was not Prater’s only act of ideologically motivated extremism. On March 29, 2019, Prater drove from his home in Tullahoma to the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market, Tennessee, where he planted and ignited an incendiary device.
According to federal prosecutors, he used a so-called sparkler bomb containing a napalm-based incendiary substance, destroying an administrative building and causing more than $1.2 million in damage.
The Highlander Center has a prominent place in American civil rights history. Rosa Parks attended an integration workshop there in 1955, months before the Montgomery bus boycott. Martin Luther King Jr. later spoke at the institution, while civil rights leader John Lewis was also associated with its educational programs.
The fire destroyed decades of historical documents, artifacts, speeches and other irreplaceable material. Nobody was injured.
Prater acknowledged that his white supremacist ideology motivated the attack and that he targeted Highlander because of its civil rights associations and faith-based educational activities.
Connection to the Christchurch Mosque Massacre
The Highlander attack occurred just two weeks after the March 15, 2019, Christchurch massacre in New Zealand, in which a white supremacist murdered 51 Muslim worshippers at two mosques.
Before setting the Highlander building ablaze, Prater spray-painted a symbol associated with Romania’s fascist Iron Guard movement in the center’s parking lot.
The same symbol appeared on a firearm used by the Christchurch attacker.
According to prosecutors, Prater knew about that connection and deliberately used the emblem to associate his attack with his pro-Nazi ideology.
The connection was more than coincidental. Federal prosecutors stated in their 2025 announcement of the original arson charges that Prater had been inspired by the Christchurch killings.
The case was also connected to online white supremacist activity. Investigators examined communications involving extremist chat groups, including messages attributed to Prater under the username “Rooster,” according to Associated Press reporting.
Previous Arson Conviction and Federal Sentence
Prater had previously been convicted of another 2019 arson involving an adult video and novelty store in East Tennessee.
Investigators recovered a cellphone belonging to Prater at that scene, which contained video evidence of the fire being started. He received a five-year federal prison sentence and was ordered to pay approximately $106,000 in restitution.
Following his April 2026 guilty plea in the Highlander and Hezbollah case, Prater was sentenced to 210 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $1,289,000 in restitution.
The prosecution involved the Justice Department’s Civil Rights and National Security divisions, the FBI and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
The case illustrates an unusual but documented intersection of extremist ideologies. A self-described white supremacist who attacked an institution associated with America’s civil rights movement also sought to assist an Iranian-backed terrorist organization by supplying information about people allegedly connected to Israel.