Pete Buttigieg says false report led to kids' removal from their home

Pete Buttigieg's life was upended this week by a hoax: An anonymous caller told Michigan Children's Protective Services that his 4-year-old twins were in danger.

"We could not understand someone abusing the system like this in order to hurt me and my family with an absurd and easily refuted allegation of a horrific crime," the U.S. transportation secretary and Democratic presidential candidate wrote in a June 26 Substack post.

This week, a police officer and a children's services worker showed up on the doorstep of Buttigieg's home in Michigan. They said they were investigating an allegation made against him, Buttigieg wrote in the post, but they would not share any details until the kids underwent private forensic interviews scheduled for the following day.

"The twenty-four hours until they returned are among the darkest hours of my life," Buttigieg wrote. "This is the ugliest thing that has happened to me since my career in service began."

After the kids' interview, Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, learned the nature of the allegation. An anonymous caller claimed to have spoken with a woman who met Buttigieg at a conference in Alabama several years ago. That woman, the caller said, claimed that Buttigieg confessed "unspeakable violent crimes" to her.

Buttigieg wrote that he told the police officer that he had never been to the town in Alabama where he was alleged to have spoken to the woman.

"Then the officer made clear that he believed this was politically motivated, and said it would not be referred to a prosecutor," Buttigieg wrote. "Nothing in the forensic interview with the children, which was conducted by trained personnel, had led to concerns."

The Michigan State Police issued a statement about the incident saying it had received an anonymous report this week.

"The Michigan State Police and Child Protective Services responded and determined the report was false," it read. "False reports are dangerous and divert law enforcement officers and Child Protective Services workers from responding to legitimate emergencies and protecting vulnerable children and families."

The CPS allegation comes at a time of heightened concerns of political violence in recent months. A slew of Indiana lawmakers were subject to "swatting" in the run-up to a vote on congressional redistricting.

The CPS allegation involving Buttigieg was unsubstantiated. But the family remains deeply shaken, Buttigieg wrote.

"Even though the accusation was absurdly and obviously false, and was promptly rejected by law enforcement, I still worry about the harm it has done," Buttigieg wrote. "Whatever you think about someone in politics, you leave people's kids out of it."

Contributing: Marc Ramirez, USA TODAY

Ryan Murphy is the communities reporter for IndyStar. She can be reached at [email protected].