Seven Prairieland defendants pleaded guilty to one count of providing material support to terrorists, each facing up to 15 years in prison. Five pleaded guilty on November 19: Seth Sikes, Nathan Baumann, Joy Gibson, Lynette Sharp, and John Thomas. Rebecca Morgan and Susan Kent followed on November 24, with plea agreements formally filed that day though signed earlier.
The guilty pleas represented the first successful terrorism convictions in the Prairieland case and the first time anyone described as antifa-aligned pleaded guilty to material support charges in U.S. history. FBI Director Kash Patel had previously called the charges the "first time" the government targeted "Antifa-aligned anarchist violent extremists" with terrorism charges.
The circumstances of each defendant illustrated the breadth of the government's material support theory:
The pleas underscored the coercive dynamic: defendants who accepted the single terrorism count faced up to 15 years, while those who went to trial faced the superseding indictment's charges carrying 10 to 60 years. The material support statute required no proof of terroristic intent -- only that defendants provided "support" to someone who committed a qualifying offense. For Sikes and Baumann, that support consisted of showing up to what they believed was a noise demonstration.