According to Reuters, the difficulties in reaching plea agreements are due to conflict over evidence handling. The prosecutors set conditions for defendants to turn over case-specific materials such as online databases, cell phones, and other relevant devices. But the defendants are not happy with the prison sentence the offers convey. 

Legal experts project that time is still early for any negotiation to be reached, but they believe defendants will eventually agree to a deal rather than being entangled in a federal trial that would be costly and stressful, CNN reported.

If none of the conversations on guilty pleas are successful, in that case, there will be a set of individual trials for more than 400 defendants queuing up in courts,  complicated owing to the COVID-19 safety measurements in hand.