Man Who Set Fire To Congressman’s Office Over Tiktok Ban Is Jailed For Seven Years

A Wisconsin man has been sentenced to 7 years successful situation for attempting to group occurrence to a Republican congressman's office, an enactment he reportedly committed retired of anger complete nan lawmaker's support for a measure mandating TikTok's Chinese proprietor to divest its US operations.

Caiden Stachowicz, 20, was besides handed an further 7 years of extended supervision by Fond du Lac County Circuit Judge Tricia Walker, according to tribunal records. Stachowicz, from Menasha, entered a nary title plea to an arson complaint successful November. This plea, while not an admittance of guilt, is treated arsenic specified for sentencing purposes, and led prosecutors to driblet associated burglary and spot harm counts.

The incident occurred early past year, erstwhile a constabulary serviceman responded to a occurrence extracurricular nan Fond du Lac agency of Republican US Representative Glenn Grothman, located astir 55 miles (90 kilometres) northwest of Milwaukee. The serviceman arrived astir 1 a.m. and reportedly recovered Stachowicz opinionated adjacent nan scene.

Timothy Hogan, Stachowicz's attorney, has not yet responded to requests for comment.

He told nan serviceman that he started nan occurrence because he doesn't for illustration Grothman, according to nan complaint. He initially planned to break into nan agency and commencement nan occurrence wrong but he couldn't break nan window, truthful he poured state connected an electrical container down nan building and astir nan beforehand of nan building, lit a lucifer and watched it burn, according to nan complaint.

He said he wanted to pain down nan agency because nan national authorities was shutting down TikTok successful usurpation of his law authorities and bid was not longer an option, nan title states. He added that Grothman voted for nan shutdown, but he didn't want to wounded Grothman aliases anyone else.

Grothman voted for a measure successful April 2024 that required TikTok’s China-based company, ByteDance, to waste its U.S. operation. The deadline was Jan. 19, 2025, but President Donald Trump has issued aggregate executive orders prolonging it. TikTok finalized a woody 2 months agone to create an American type of of nan societal video platform. Trump praised nan deal.

A spokesperson for Grothman's legislature agency didn't instantly respond to a connection seeking comment.