MADISON, Wis. – Prosecutors on Wednesday charged a Wisconsin man who allegedly told police he tried to burn down a congressman’s office because he was upset about the federal ban on TikTok with multiple charges, including arson.
Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney filed a complaint against Caiden Stachowicz, 19, charging him with felony arson, terroristic threats, attempted robbery and property damage. He would face more than 50 years behind bars if convicted of all charges.
Stachowicz, of Menasha, was scheduled to make his initial court appearance Wednesday morning. Online court records indicated Judge Tricia Walker set him on $500,000 cash bail and ordered him to have no contact with Republican Rep. Glenn Grothman or his staff. He was also prohibited from possessing dangerous weapons or fire-starting materials.
Records showed Stachowicz appeared via video conference from jail. They did not appoint a lawyer for him.
According to the complaint, a police officer responded to a fire outside Grothman’s office in Fond du Lac around 1 a.m. Sunday and saw Stachowicz standing nearby.
The officer said that as he worked to put out the flames with his fire extinguisher, Stachowicz told him he started the fire because he doesn’t like Grothman. The officer handcuffed Stachowicz and took him to the police department. Firefighters and police quickly extinguished the fire, limiting the damage.
During an interview at the apartment, Stachowicz told the officer that he bought gasoline 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 was unable to break the window. He then poured the gas into an electrical box at the back of the building and around the front of the building, lit a match and watched it burn, according to the complaint.
He said he wanted to burn the building down 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 forced China-based TikTok company ByteDance to sell its U.S. operation by Sunday.
Stachowicz said he believed the closure violated his constitutional rights. He added that he participated in peaceful protests in the past but no longer believes peace is an option, according to the complaint.
“Caiden said it was a government building and he wanted to cause a disturbance and make his point by setting the building on fire,” the complaint says. “Caiden said he wished the whole building had burned down.”
When asked if he expected people to be inside the building, he said no and that he didn’t want to hurt anyone and that he didn’t want to hurt Grothman himself.
TikTok went down Saturday night, but the platform was back online hours later after then-President-elect Donald Trump said he would try to give ByteDance more time to find a buyer. Trump signed an executive order Monday after taking office instructing the U.S. attorney general not to enforce the ban for 75 days.
When asked for comment on the charges, Grothman spokeswoman Noelle Young responded by saying Grothman would call The Associated Press directly. The congressman had not contacted the AP as of early Wednesday afternoon.
