Wisconsin man accused of setting fire to congressman's office pleads no contest to arson charge

Audio By Carbonatix

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin man accused of trying to burn down a congressman's office earlier this year because he was upset over the federal TikTok ban has pleaded no contest to felony arson.

Caiden Stachowicz, 20, of Menasha, entered the plea Monday in Fond du Lac County Circuit Court, online court records showed. Defendants who plead no contest have decided they will no longer fight the charges against them but they do not admit guilt.

District Attorney Eric Toney agreed to drop burglary and property damage charges in exchange for the plea. Stachowicz faces up to 40 years in the state prison system when he's sentenced March 5. Email and voicemail messages were left for his attorney, listed in the online records as Timothy Edward Hogan.

According to a criminal complaint, a police officer responded to a fire outside Republican U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman's Fond du Lac office around 1 a.m. on Jan. 19 and saw Stachowicz standing nearby.

Stachowicz told the officer that he started the fire because he doesn't like Grothman, according to the complaint. He said that he initially planned to break into the office and start the fire inside but he couldn't break the window. He then poured gas on an electrical box in 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 down the office because the U.S. government was shutting down TikTok in violation of his constitutional rights and peace was no longer an option. He noted that Grothman voted for the shutdown but that he didn't want to hurt anyone or harm Grothman himself.

Grothman voted for a bill in April 2024 that mandated TikTok's China-based company, ByteDance, sell its U.S. operation. The deadline was Jan. 19, but President Donald Trump has issued multiple executive orders prolonging it. His administration has been negotiating with Chinese officials to keep the popular social media app running in the U.S., but no deal has been announced.

Messages were left at Grothman’s Washington, D.C., office and with a spokeswoman.