Madison, Wis. – Prosecutors charged a Wisconsin man who allegedly told police he tried to burn down a congressman’s office because he was angry about a federal TikTok ban on Wednesday with multiple counts, including arson
Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney filed a complaint against 19-year-old Caiden Stachowicz, charging him with aggravated arson, making terroristic threats, attempted burglary and criminal damage to property. If convicted on all counts, he faces more than 50 years behind bars.
Stachowicz, of Menasha, was scheduled to make his initial court appearance Wednesday morning. Judge Tricia Walker set her bail at $500,000 cash and ordered her to have no contact with Republican U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman or his staff, online court records show. It also prohibited him from possessing any dangerous weapons or fire-starting material.
Records show Stakowicz appeared from jail via video conference. They did not list any lawyer for him.
According to the complaint, a police officer responded to a fire outside Grothman’s Fond du Lac office around 1 a.m. Sunday and saw Stachowicz standing nearby.
As he tried to put out the fire with his own extinguisher, Stachowicz told him he started the fire because he didn’t like Grothman, the officer said. The officer handcuffed Stachowicz and took him to the police department. Firefighters and police quickly brought the fire under control, minimizing the damage.
During an interview at the department, Stachowicz told the officer he bought gas and matches to start a fire in Grothman’s office, according to the complaint. He said he tried to break into the office so he could start the fire inside but could not break the window. He then poured gas on an electrical box in the back of the building and in the front of the building, lit a match and watched it burn, according to the complaint.
He said he wanted to burn down the building because the U.S. government was shutting down TikTok and Grothman voted “yes” to shut it down, according to the complaint. Grothman voted in favor of a bill last April that would have ordered ByteDance, TikTok’s China-based subsidiary, to sell its US operations by Sunday.
Stachowicz said he believes the shutdown is a violation of his constitutional rights. He added that he has participated in peaceful protests in the past but no longer considers peace as an option, according to the complaint.
“Caden stated that this was a government building and wanted to create a disruption and make a point by setting fire to the building,” the complaint states. “Caden said he wished the whole building would burn.”
Asked if he hoped people would be inside the building, he said no and that he didn’t want to hurt anyone and let Grothman hurt himself.
TikTok went dark over the weekend, but the platform returned online hours later after then-President-elect Donald Trump said he would try to give ByteDance more time to find a buyer. came Trump signed the executive order. After Monday’s inauguration, he directed the US attorney general to hold off on enforcing the ban for 75 days.
Asked to comment on the allegations, Grothman’s spokesman Noel Young responded by saying that Grothman would call The Associated Press directly. The congressman had not been contacted by AP as of Wednesday afternoon.
