Three men pled guilty in a plot to attack power grids in the U.S., which they believed could lead to economic and civil unrest and create the opportunity for white leaders to rise, federal prosecutors said. Christopher Cook, 20, of Columbus, Oh., Jonathan Frost, 24, of West Lafayette, In., and Katy, Tx., and Jackson Matthew Sawall, 22, of Oshkosh, Wi., admitted to one count of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, reports the New York Times. Kenneth Parker, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, said the three men “conspired to use violence to sow hate, create chaos, and endanger the safety of the American people.”
Timothy Langan of the FBI counterterrorism division said the three men expected their plot to lead to “economic distress and civil unrest ... These individuals wanted to carry out such a plot because of their adherence to racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist view,” Samuel Shamansky, a lawyer for Frost, said he had “accepted complete responsibility for his reprehensible conduct ... Regrettably, Mr. Frost fell prey to the misinformation espoused on the internet and now recognizes how dangerous the medium can be." In 2019, Frost and Cook met in an online chat group, and they began talking about the possibility of attacking a power grid, according to plea agreements. The men began making efforts to recruit others and began sharing reading material that promoted white supremacy and neo-Nazism.