Wisconsin man accused of setting fire to lawmaker’s office over TikTok ban
MADISON, Wisconsin, USA — A Wisconsin man who allegedly told police he tried to set fire to a lawmaker’s office because he was upset with the federal ban on the social media platform TikTok was charged Wednesday with multiple counts, including one of arson. Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney filed a complaint against 19-year-old Caiden Stachowicz, charging him with felony arson, making terrorist threats, attempted robbery and criminal damage. property. If convicted of all charges, he would face a sentence of more than 50 years in prison. Stachowicz, a native of Menasha City, was scheduled to make his first court appearance Wednesday morning. Online court records indicated Judge Tricia Walker set cash bail for him at $500,000 and ordered him to have no contact with Republican U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman or his staff. He was also prohibited from possessing any dangerous weapons or materials to start a fire. Records showed Stachowicz appeared via video call from jail. His lawyer could not be contacted at this time. 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 near the site. The officer said that while he was working 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 police department, 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 get into the office so he could start the fire inside, but he couldn’t break the window. He then poured the gasoline into an electrical box at the back of the building and around the front of the building, lit a match and watched it burn, the complaint adds. He noted that he wanted to burn the building because the US government was shutting down TikTok and Grothman voted “in favor” of banning the social network, according to the complaint. Grothman voted in favor of a bill in April last year that forced TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, to sell its US operation by Sunday. Stachowicz said he believed the closure violated his constitutional rights. He added that he had participated in peaceful protests in the past, but no longer believes peace is an option, the complaint states. “Caiden said it was a government building and he wanted to cause a disruption and make a point by starting the fire in the building,” according to the complaint. “Caiden commented that he wished the entire 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 he didn’t want to hurt Grothman either. TikTok went down in the US on Saturday afternoon, but the platform was back up and running 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 implement the ban for 75 days. When asked to comment on the charges, Grothman spokeswoman Noelle Young responded by saying Grothman would call The Associated Press directly. However, the lawmaker had not contacted the AP as of Wednesday afternoon.
