Pete Buttigieg says family investigated over baseless child abuse allegation | Pete Buttigieg
Former U.S. transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg said Friday that an anonymous and police say false accusation led Child Protective Services to investigate his family.
In a Substack to mail In an article published Friday, Buttigieg called the incident that separated him from his four-year-old twins “among the darkest hours of my life” and likened the accusation to “swatting,” the practice of calling the police with a fake emergency report to trigger law enforcement intervention.
“Now imagine the same concept, but with Child Protective Services instead of a SWAT team,” Buttigieg wrote. “Haven’t I thought about it? Neither did I, until a few days ago a police officer and a CPS worker came to our house and politely asked to talk to me.”
A spokesperson for the Michigan State Police acknowledged the incident in a statement, saying the department received an “anonymous report” earlier this week and “determined that the report was inaccurate.”
“Michigan State Police and Child Protective Services responded and determined the report was inaccurate,” department spokeswoman Shanon Banner said. “False reports are dangerous and distract law enforcement and Child Protective Services workers from responding to legitimate emergencies and protecting vulnerable children and families.”
According to Buttigieg, the social worker and police officer investigating the accusation requested that the former transportation secretary and her husband, Chasten, leave their children for 24 hours. Buttigieg said he sent his children to their grandparents’ house. He said that it was determined that the accusation was unfounded and politically motivated.
“CPS was contacted by an anonymous caller,” Buttigieg, a 2028 presidential candidate, wrote. “The caller said he spoke to a woman who claimed to have met me at a conference in Alabama a few years ago; she said I told her I had committed unspeakable violent crimes and that the caller believed my children were still at risk. That’s all.”
Buttigieg wrote that the caller never went where he claimed to be and described the accusation as “a cruel, politically motivated hoax that harmed our family.”
“I don’t know who did this or what exactly encouraged them to try it,” he said. “I noticed this happened right after we shared photos of our family on social media for Father’s Day, or within a month, to make families like ours feel welcome and safe.”
