Buttigieg says false CPS report separated him from children

Pete Buttigieg said a false child abuse report sent police and Child Protective Services to his home this week, separating him and his husband from their four-year-old twins overnight before authorities determined the allegation was unfounded.

The former U.S. transportation secretary and onetime Democratic presidential candidate described the episode Friday in a Substack post, calling the 24 hours before his children returned “among the darkest hours of my life.” Michigan State Police confirmed that it received an anonymous report and said police and Child Protective Services “responded and determined the report was false.”

“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 Michigan State Police said in a statement.

Buttigieg compared the allegation to “swatting,” the practice of making a false emergency report to trigger a police response at someone’s home. “Now imagine the same concept, but with Child Protective Services instead of a SWAT team,” he wrote. “Hadn’t thought of that? Me neither, until a few days ago when a police officer and a CPS worker showed up at our home and politely asked to speak with me.”

Buttigieg said the CPS worker told him an allegation had been made concerning the twins, whom he and his husband, Chasten, adopted in 2021. At first, he wrote, he was “bewildered and troubled” but tried to remain calm.

“What I didn’t understand was what could have led to this kind of visit,” Buttigieg wrote. “Then, the CPS worker told me something that made my stomach turn: I was not to be alone around the children, at least until the interview took place the next day. They asked if I had relatives nearby or could perhaps stay at a hotel for the night.”

Buttigieg said he and Chasten were not told the details of the allegation at that point and agreed to send the children to their grandparents’ home overnight.

“I tried to get my head around the idea that I had been accused of something so serious that I couldn’t be alone around my own children, and had consented to have them interviewed by strangers, without my knowing where the accusation had come from or even what it contained,” he wrote.

After local authorities investigated and spoke with the twins, Buttigieg said, an officer explained the allegation during a formal interview. He wrote that an anonymous caller claimed to have spoken with a woman who said she met Buttigieg at a conference several years ago in Alabama, where Buttigieg allegedly said he had committed “unspeakable violent crimes.” The caller, Buttigieg wrote, said he believed the children were still at risk.

“That was all,” Buttigieg wrote.

Buttigieg said he told the officer he had never been to the town where the woman claimed to have met him. He said the officer then indicated he believed the report was politically motivated and said it would not be referred to a prosecutor. Buttigieg also wrote that nothing in the children’s forensic interview, conducted by trained personnel, raised concerns, and that the CPS worker said she had not found anything to substantiate the allegation, though her process would take longer to complete formally.

Buttigieg described the authorities who came to his home as “courteous and professional,” but said the incident caused severe emotional stress for his family.

“I don’t know who did this, or exactly what prompted them to try,” he wrote. “It’s not lost on me that this happened soon after we shared photos of our family on social media for Father’s Day. Or that this occurred during a month meant to make families like ours feel welcome and safe.”

He added: “I cannot describe the mix of rage and sadness that I feel at the idea that someone brought our children into this. They are four years old. Four. They do not know or care what a Democrat or a Republican is. They don’t know how politics works. They don’t know about hate.”