Pete Buttigieg Speaks Out After a ‘False Report’ Leads Child Protective Services to Investigate His Twins’ Safety at Home

Daniel S. LevineFri, June 26, 2026 at 11:56 PM UTC

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Pete Buttigieg in April 2024Credit: Alex Wong/Getty -

Pete Buttigieg revealed in a Substack post on Friday, June 26 that child protective services recently investigated his twins' safety at home after receiving a "false report"

The former transportation secretary said he was told he could not be alone with his children for 24 hours during their investigation

Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, are parents to 4-year-old fraternal twins Gus and Penelope

Pete Buttigieg says a "false report" led child protective services to investigate his children's safety at home.

The former United States Secretary of Transportation, 44, revealed a CPS worker and a Michigan state trooper arrived at his home “a few days ago,” after a "false report," in a Substack post on Friday, June 26.

They told him there was an “allegation” against him concerning Joseph August “Gus” and Penelope Rose, whom he and his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, adopted in 2021. Buttigieg added he was told by a child protective services worker that he could not be “alone” with his 4-year-old twins while they were interviewed.

A “forensic interview” was arranged for Gus and Penelope on the next day, the trooper and CPS worker told Buttigieg. Neither Buttigieg nor any family member could be present for the interview. He would only learn the “nature of the allegation” after his own interview, Buttigieg wrote.

Buttigieg said he tried to stay calm, but he was then told, “I was not to be alone around the children, at least until the interview took place the next day,” he wrote. “They asked if I had relatives nearby or could perhaps stay at a hotel for the night.”

Chasten later returned home with Gus and Penelope after picking them up from summer camp. The couple and the police agreed the children would stay at their grandparents’ house nearby that night.

The former South Bend, Ind., mayor described the 24 hours away from his children as “among the darkest hours of my life.”

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The ordeal was “the ugliest thing that has happened to me since my career in service began,” Buttigieg wrote.

Pete Buttigieg in September 2024Credit: Tasos Katopodis/Getty

Investigators told Buttigieg the next day that the allegation came from an anonymous caller who spoke to a “woman who claimed to have met me at a conference several years ago in Alabama,” Buttigieg wrote. The woman allegedly told the caller that Buttigieg told her he committed violent crimes, and the caller thought Buttigieg’s children were in danger. Buttigieg said he had never been to the town where this alleged meeting took place.

The police officer told Buttigieg the allegation would not be referred to a prosecutor. The officer believed the report was “politically motivated,” and they found nothing to be concerned about after Gus and Penelope were interviewed.

A Michigan State Police spokesperson confirmed to PEOPLE that an officer and CPS “responded and determined the report was false,” adding, “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.”

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Although the incident was sparked by a false report, Buttigieg wrote that he is concerned about the effect it will have on his family. The former Democratic presidential candidate also pointed out that it was “not lost on him” that the incident happened “soon after” he and Chasten shared pictures of their family 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,” Buttigieg wrote. “They are four years old. Four. They do not know or care what a Democrat or a Republican is. They don’t know how politics works. They don’t know about hate.”

on People

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”