MADISON, Wis. \u2014 A Wisconsin man who allegedly told police he tried to set fire to a Republican congressman\u2019s office last year because he was angry that the lawmaker backed a bill requiring TikTok\u2019s Chinese owner to sell off its U.S. operations was sentenced Thursday to seven years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to the prison time, Fond du Lac County Circuit Judge Tricia Walker sentenced 20-year-old Caiden Stachowicz to seven years of extended supervision, court records show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stachowicz, of Menasha, pleaded no contest to an arson charge in November. Prosecutors dropped burglary and property damage counts in exchange for Stachowicz\u2019s no contest plea, which isn\u2019t an admission of guilt but is treated as such for the purposes of sentencing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to a criminal complaint, a police officer responded to a fire outside Republican U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman\u2019s office in Fond du Lac, about 55 miles northwest of Milwaukee, at around 1 a.m. on Jan. 19, 2025, and saw Stachowicz standing nearby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He told the officer that he started the fire because he doesn\u2019t like Grothman, according to the complaint. He initially planned to break into the office and start the fire inside. But he couldn\u2019t break the window, so he poured gas on an electrical box behind the building and around the front of the building, lit a match and watched it burn, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said he wanted to burn down the office because the federal government was shutting down TikTok in violation of his constitutional rights and peace was no longer an option, the complaint states. He added that Grothman voted for the shutdown, but he didn\u2019t want to hurt Grothman or anyone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grothman voted for a bill in April 2024 that required TikTok\u2019s China-based company, ByteDance, to sell its U.S. operation. The deadline was Jan. 19, 2025, but President Donald Trump has issued multiple executive orders prolonging it. TikTok finalized a deal two months ago to create an American version of the social video platform. Trump praised the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Danielle Gorsuch, one of Stachowicz\u2019s attorneys, told The Associated Press after the sentencing that the incident was the culmination of a mental health crisis for her client and stressed that no one was hurt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCaden took every caution to make sure no one was present in the building at the time of the incident, as he only wanted to hurt himself,\u201d Gorsuch said. \u201cHe took responsibility from night one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A spokesperson for Grothman\u2019s congressional office didn\u2019t immediately respond to a message seeking comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n