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A vague and unverified tip that briefly separated former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg from his four-year-old twins came from an accuser later deemed potentially “mentally unstable,” according to newly disclosed police records.
Child advocacy experts say the case exposes critical breakdowns in how child welfare tips are vetted, particularly when multi-state jurisdictions are involved. Indiana child welfare officials initially received a hotline call containing “very limited information” about Buttigieg, as reported by The Washington Post.
Per state agency policy, Indiana officials did not pass along the caller’s contact details or name when handing the tip off to authorities in Michigan, where Buttigieg currently resides.
Michigan State Police and local child welfare workers then visited the former South Bend mayor’s home in Traverse City on June 23, telling Buttigieg he could not be alone with his children until they underwent forensic interviews the following day. Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten, arranged for the twins to spend the night with nearby grandparents.
Michigan law enforcement waited six days after first approaching Buttigieg before requesting the caller’s identity from Indiana authorities, according to police records. By that point, investigators had already publicly declared the allegation false and unfounded.
Vivek Sankaran, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School and child advocacy expert, told The Washington Post that he was deeply concerned by how Michigan State Police handled an uncorroborated tip.
“At the very least, it’s incredibly poor investigative work,” Sankaran said. “I would even say reckless, in light of how harmful this is for the family. It should scare all of us.”
The incident sparked bipartisan criticism and prompted an inquiry by the Michigan Attorney General’s office into how the tip was processed.
“Common sense would have shown that this targeted report plainly lacked credibility on its face,” Kimberly Bush, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Attorney General’s office, told the publication, adding that due diligence should be required before children are separated from parents.
The Washington Post identified the caller as an Alabama resident who previously lived in Indiana. When reached by phone, the woman was unable to answer basic questions regarding her claims, refused to provide details to corroborate her story and accused the reporter of participating in a cover-up.
Police records noted that an Indiana investigator discovered a Facebook post by the woman urging people not to vote for Buttigieg weeks before she contacted the hotline.
The caller claimed she had met Buttigieg years earlier in Florence, Alabama, where he had supposedly confessed to violent crimes. However, travel records confirmed Buttigieg had never been to the town.
Indiana State Police confirmed an ongoing investigation into potential false reporting, while Michigan State Police spokesperson Lauren Thompson-Phillips told the outlet that the department’s primary “responsibility was to assess and ensure the safety of the children involved.”
Buttigieg first detailed the ordeal publicly in a June Substack post, describing the 24-hour separation as “among the darkest hours of my life.” He noted that investigators told him the tip appeared politically motivated and that Child Protective Services found nothing to substantiate it, as reported by the Associated Press.
“I cannot describe the mix of rage and sadness that I feel at the idea that someone brought our children into this,” Buttigieg wrote. “They are four years old. Four. They do not know or care what a Democrat or a Republican is.”
The former 2020 presidential candidate, who is widely expected to pursue another presidential run in 2028, has frequently been targeted by anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and death threats since becoming the first openly gay Senate-confirmed Cabinet member. Buttigieg noted that the false report occurred shortly after he posted family Father’s Day photos online.
“Everyone knows politics is ugly these days,” Buttigieg wrote. “It’s always been ugly, but now it feels more and more like bloodsport. Even so, this is different.”
