Wisconsin Man Accused Of Setting Fire To Congressman's Office Over Tiktok Ban Gets 7 Years In Prison

MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin man who allegedly told constabulary he tried to group occurrence to a Republican congressman’s agency past twelvemonth because he was angry that nan lawmaker backed a measure requiring TikTok’s Chinese proprietor to waste disconnected its U.S. operations was sentenced Thursday to 7 years successful prison.

In summation to nan situation time, Fond du Lac County Circuit Judge Tricia Walker sentenced 20-year-old Caiden Stachowicz to 7 years of extended supervision, tribunal records show.

Stachowicz, of Menasha, pleaded nary title to an arson complaint successful November. Prosecutors dropped burglary and spot harm counts successful speech for Stachowicz’s nary title plea, which isn’t an admittance of guilt but is treated arsenic specified for nan purposes of sentencing.

According to a criminal complaint, a constabulary serviceman responded to a occurrence extracurricular Republican U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman’s agency successful Fond du Lac, astir 55 miles northwest of Milwaukee, astatine astir 1 a.m. connected Jan. 19, 2025, and saw Stachowicz opinionated nearby.

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 inside. 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 nary 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 nan societal video platform. Trump praised nan deal.

Danielle Gorsuch, 1 of Stachowicz’s attorneys, told nan Associated Press aft nan sentencing that nan incident was nan culmination of a intelligence wellness situation for her customer and stressed that nary 1 was hurt.

“Caden took each be aware to make judge nary 1 was coming successful nan building astatine nan clip of nan incident, arsenic he only wanted to wounded himself,” Gorsuch said. “He took work from nighttime one.”

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

Richmond writes for nan Associated Press.