Pete Buttigieg’s Kids Were Taken Away After ‘Tip’ to Cops

Pete Buttigieg’s family was pulled into a stunning child welfare ordeal after authorities acted on a vague and explosive tip from a caller later described in police records as potentially “mentally unstable,” according to a new report.

The former transportation secretary, who is already being discussed as a possible 2028 Democratic presidential contender, had his 4-year-old twins temporarily separated from him and his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, after an anonymous allegation was made to Child Protective Services last month.

According to police records obtained by The Washington Post, the caller accused Buttigieg of committing “unspeakable violent crimes” and claimed his children could still be in danger. But the records reportedly show the tip contained “very limited information,” and officials later questioned whether the source was credible at all.

The incident has now sparked a fresh investigation in Michigan into how such a serious allegation was handled — and why Buttigieg’s children were removed from his care before authorities had apparently done basic work to verify the source.

Buttigieg, 44, went public with the ordeal in a June Substack post, describing it as “the ugliest thing that has happened to me since my career in service began.”

He said authorities told him he could not be alone with his twins, Penelope and Gus, until the children could be interviewed away from their parents. The children were sent to stay with their grandparents for about 24 hours.

Buttigieg called the separation “among the darkest hours of my life.”

The case has now raised uncomfortable questions about the child welfare system, anonymous reporting, and how quickly state agencies can move against a family — even a nationally known political figure — based on a thin accusation.

According to The Post, Indiana child welfare officials first received the tip but did not pass along the caller’s name when alerting authorities in Michigan, where Buttigieg now lives. Michigan police then reportedly waited six days after approaching Buttigieg before even trying to identify the caller.

By that point, Buttigieg’s children had already been separated from their parents.

Nine days after the original call in Indiana, a Michigan child welfare worker reportedly learned from Indiana police that the possible source of the allegation was a “mentally unstable woman in Indiana.” Only then did Michigan State Police contact Indiana authorities to pursue the caller’s identity.

An Indiana investigator later found a Facebook post in which the woman urged people not to vote for Buttigieg and referenced her accusation weeks before contacting authorities, according to the report.

When reached by phone by The Post, the woman confirmed making reports about Buttigieg but reportedly could not answer basic questions about her own allegations. She also accused a reporter of helping Buttigieg cover something up.

The Michigan attorney general’s office is now investigating how the allegation was handled.

“Common sense would have shown that this targeted report plainly lacked credibility on its face,” spokeswoman Kimberly Bush told The Post. “Before children are separated from their families, due diligence should be exercised to ensure some nexus exists between the source and the family.”

Indiana State Police also confirmed a separate investigation into possible false reporting.

The episode comes as Buttigieg remains one of the Democratic Party’s most high-profile figures. He recently emerged as the frontrunner in an Emerson College poll of possible 2028 Democratic presidential nominees, further raising the stakes around anything involving his family and public life.

Buttigieg, who became the first openly gay Cabinet member confirmed by the Senate, and Chasten adopted their twins in 2021. He told authorities his family has faced “many threats,” including death threats, since becoming parents.

“This has been a painful and infuriating situation for the family,” spokesman Sean Manning said. “They are in touch with Michigan authorities, seeking answers and accountability for what happened.”

Legal and child welfare experts who reviewed the documents for The Post said the case appears to expose serious flaws in the system.

Vivek Sankaran, a University of Michigan law professor and child advocacy expert, said he was disturbed that police approached Buttigieg based on such a vague allegation without clear evidence that the children were in immediate danger.

“At the very least, it’s incredibly poor investigative work,” Sankaran told The Post. “I would even say reckless, in light of how harmful this is for the family. It should scare all of us.”

Dale Margolin Cecka, director of Albany Law School’s Family Violence Litigation Clinic, said the case showed a troubling lack of accountability.

“This case highlights everything that is wrong with a system of reporting and investigating where no one has accountability,” she said. “And a family is traumatized because of it.”

In his Substack post, Buttigieg said the accusation was “absurdly and obviously false,” but said he still worries about the damage it caused.

“I worry about how anyone, even in today’s world, could fail to respect the absolutely fundamental principle that whatever you think about someone in politics, you leave people’s kids out of it,” he wrote.

The scandal now leaves two major questions hanging over officials in Indiana and Michigan: why a politically charged, thinly sourced claim was allowed to escalate so quickly — and whether a family would have been put through the same ordeal if agencies had done more homework before taking action.