Pete Buttigieg Opens Up About 'Darkest Hours' After Being Separated From His Kids Due To False Abuse Allegations

Former Democratic President Joe Biden's Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, posted on Friday about the ordeal he, his husband Chasten Glezman Buttigieg, and their 4-year-old twins endured after someone targeted them with false abuse accusations.

Buttigieg described the attack as similar to a swatting, a dangerous form of criminal harassment/domestic terrorism in which a perpetrator makes a false report of a dangerous emergency to law enforcement in the hopes that SWAT or a similar heavily armed tactical unit will attack the home. Multiple people have died as a direct result of swatting incidents.

In the case of the Buttigieg family, the perpetrator that targeted them called Michigan Child Protective Services (MCPS) and made egregious allegations against the Buttigiegs.

Pete Buttigieg wrote while recounting the frightening incident on Substack:

"Someone decided to hurt our family this week. I’m furious, and I want to share what happened."

"You’ve probably heard of 'swatting.' It’s a cruel and dangerous kind of hoax that has started happening more frequently in recent years."

After explaining what swatting is, Buttigieg wrote:

"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.”

“For twenty-four deeply distressing hours, we had no idea what I was accused of or what was about to happen. 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."

Investigators requested the children be removed from the household and the couple not be allowed to interact with them for 24 hours, so they were sent to stay with their grandparents.

Buttigieg explained:

"An anonymous caller had contacted CPS. The caller said that he had spoken to a woman who claimed to have met me at a conference several years ago in Alabama, where she said I told her that I had committed unspeakable violent crimes, and the caller believed my children were still at risk. That was all."

He called the incident "among the darkest hours of my life."

The false allegations quickly fell apart when it was conclusively determined Buttigieg had never been to the place the anonymous caller claimed he spoke to the unidentified—and likely nonexistent—woman.

Michigan State Police spokesperson Shanon Banner, in conjunction with MCPS, stated:

"The Michigan state police and Child Protective Services responded and determined the report was false."

They added:

"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."

All parties believe the attack on the family was politically motivated. Buttigieg called the attack a "cruel, politically motivated hoax that harmed our family."

He added:

"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."

People offered the Buttigieg family their support.

Buttigieg shared:

"Now our family is left to deal with the aftermath. 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."

"Not just for our own sakes, but to draw a line that I thought everyone already recognized: do not mess with someone’s kids."

Hopefully the perpetrator can be identified and prosecuted.