Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said authorities temporarily removed his young twins from their home after he was anonymously accused of posing a danger to children in what he condemned as a “cruel, politically motivated hoax.”
Mr. Buttigieg said the 4-year-old youngsters were taken to their grandparents’ house for 24 hours, and he was interviewed by police and Children’s Protective Services after an unidentified caller alleged that he had committed violent crimes.
Michigan State Police told media outlets that the report was determined to be fake.
“This week, the Michigan State Police received an anonymous report. The Michigan State Police and Child Protective Services responded and determined the report was false,” said police in a Friday statement to Fox2 in Detroit. “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.”
Mr. Buttigieg described the 24-hour separation as “among the darkest hours of my life” in a Substack post entitled, “A Terrible Thing Happened to My Family.”
“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 said in the post.
Mr. Buttigieg, a potential contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, noted that public officials are increasingly targeted by “swatting,” which involves SWAT teams showing up at their homes after receiving phony 911 reports about hostages and other dangerous situations.
“It’s become enough of a problem that the FBI now has a dedicated database to track such incidents,” said Mr. Buttigieg, who served in the Biden administration.
“Now imagine the same concept, but with Child Protective Services instead of a SWAT team. 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,” he said.
He said the anonymous caller claimed to have spoken to a woman who said she had met Mr. Buttigieg at a conference years ago in Alabama, where she said he told her that he had “committed unspeakable violent crimes.”
“That was all. The officer had a couple of obvious questions. He asked if I had been to the town where the woman claimed she had met me. I have not,” said Mr. Buttigieg, who lives in Traverse City, Michigan.
“Then, the officer made clear that he believed this was politically motivated, and said it would not be referred to a prosecutor,” he said. “Nothing in the forensic interview with the children, which was conducted by trained personnel, had led to concerns.”
Mr. Buttigieg, who adopted boy-girl twins in 2021 with his husband, Chasten, said the incident occurred shortly after he posted family photos on social media for Father’s Day.
“I cannot describe the mix of rage and sadness that I feel at the idea that someone brought our children into this,” he said. “They are 4 years old. Four. They do not know or care what a Democrat or a Republican is. They don’t know how politics works.”
He also said he will pursue charges if the perpetrator can be found.
“I don’t know how much we can do about it, but so help me God, if there is any way to press civil or criminal charges over this, we will,” Mr. Buttigieg said. “Not just for our own sakes, but to draw a line that I thought everyone already recognized: Do not mess with someone’s kids.”
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