Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg Details Political Targeting in False Child Welfare Report That Separated Him From Twins

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg details how a false child welfare report led to his family being separated by authorities for 24 hours, he said Friday.

In a Substack post titled “A Terrible Thing Happened to My Family,” Buttigieg described how an anonymous report prompted Michigan State Police and Child Protective Services workers to visit his home in Traverse City earlier this week.

Authorities later confirmed the allegations were unfounded. Investigators required him and his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, to remain separated from their children for about 24 hours while the claims were investigated. His twins, Penelope and Gus, underwent forensic interviews as part of the inquiry.

“For twenty-four deeply distressing hours, we had no idea what I was accused of or what was about to happen,” Buttigieg wrote. “We could not understand someone abusing the system like this in order to hurt me and my family.”

Michigan State Police confirmed receiving an anonymous report and stated that investigators, along with Child Protective Services, determined it was false. Department spokesperson Shanon Banner added that false reports divert law enforcement and child welfare workers from legitimate emergencies.

Buttigieg said the anonymous caller claimed to have spoken with a woman who alleged she met him years earlier at a conference in Alabama, where he confessed to committing violent crimes. However, Buttigieg stated he had never attended the conference or met the woman described by the caller, calling the allegations “a cruel, politically motivated hoax.”

The former Cabinet secretary likened the incident to “swatting”—false emergency reports made to trigger police responses—but said this case turned the child welfare system against him and his family for political reasons.

“I don’t know who did this, or exactly what prompted them to try,” Buttigieg wrote. He noted the incident occurred shortly after he and his husband shared Father’s Day photos of their family on social media and during Pride Month, but said he could not be certain whether those events were connected.

Buttigieg praised the professionalism of the responding officer and child welfare worker while condemning the person who filed the report. He hopes the episode draws attention to the harm caused by false allegations that consume public resources and inflict lasting trauma on families.

“We got our family back together,” Buttigieg wrote. “But no family should have to endure what ours did because someone decided to weaponize a system intended to protect children.”