Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said that he was temporarily separated from his children after being effectively ‘swatted’ due to an anonymous caller reporting false accusations to Child Protective Services (CPS).

“Someone decided to hurt our family this week. I’m furious, and I want to share what happened,” Buttigieg wrote in a Substack post titled “A Terrible Thing Happened to My Family.”

Buttigieg wrote on Substack:

You’ve probably heard of “swatting.” It’s a cruel and dangerous kind of hoax that has started happening more frequently in recent years. Someone anonymously calls 911 with a false report of imminent danger, such as a hostage situation, at the home of a public figure. Law enforcement swarms the house, guns drawn, terrifying the unsuspecting homeowner and family and sometimes even leading to deaths or injuries in the confusion. It’s happened to dozens of lawmakers, judges, celebrities, and others. (When I was in the Cabinet, someone attempted to do this to our home, but fortunately the hoax was quickly detected.) It’s become enough of a problem that the FBI now has a dedicated database to track such incidents.

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.

I showed them in, invited them on the deck so that we could hear each other over the barking dog, and asked what was going on. They explained that there had been an allegation against me, that it concerned our four-year-old twins, and that a forensic interview had been arranged for the children the following day. I could not be present at the children’s interview, nor could any family member sit in. Afterwards, they would come back and interview me. And only then would they tell me anything about the nature of the allegation.

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I was bewildered and troubled, but tried to stay calm. I’m used to any number of falsehoods, attacks, and serious problems being thrown my way. What I didn’t understand was what could have led to this kind of visit. Then, the CPS worker told me something that made my stomach turn: I was not to be alone around the children, at least until the interview took place the next day. They asked if I had relatives nearby or could perhaps stay at a hotel for the night.

The officer and the CPS worker wanted to see the children. I invited them to stay until Chasten, who was out running errands and preparing to pick the twins up from summer camp for the day, returned home. When he pulled up in the family car, the kids bounded into the house, looking curiously at the two guests. They were courteous and professional, inviting the kids to inspect the officer’s police car, which fascinated them of course, while the grownups talked in the driveway. We agreed that the kids would stay at their grandparents’ house after our family dinner that night. And then they left.

“To be clear, making a false report of this kind is a crime. That’s as it should be, both to protect the innocent from false accusations, and to preserve the integrity of a process designed to protect children from harm,” Buttigieg wrote.

“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,” he added.

“This week someone targeted my family for harm with a false report. We’re physically OK, but that doesn’t mean we weren’t harmed. I am beyond furious,” Buttigieg wrote on X.

“Whatever your politics, this is awful, wrong, and can never become normal,” he added.

“Then, for the first time, the officer explained what the allegation actually was. 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,” Buttigieg wrote in his post.

“That was all. The officer had a couple of obvious questions. He asked if I had been to the town where the woman claimed she had met me. I have not. Then the officer made clear that he believed this was politically motivated, and said it would not be referred to a prosecutor. Nothing in the forensic interview with the children, which was conducted by trained personnel, had led to concerns,” he continued.

The Hill shared further:

Michigan State Police told The Associated Press in a statement that they received an “anonymous report” and that their officers and CPS “responded and determined the report was false.” The Hill has reached out to Michigan State Police about the incident.

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“Many times over the years, I have been denounced, yelled at, protested, threatened, and heckled,” Buttigieg wrote. “I’ve been through political attacks in office, death threats in public life, and rocket attacks in war. But this is the ugliest thing that has happened to me since my career in service began.”

Buttigieg, who is gay and married to a man, noted the timing of the threat shortly after Father’s Day and during Pride Month.

“We’re used to nasty, hateful, and sometimes violent things being said about us and even about our family,” he wrote. “But this is the first time someone managed to invade our lives like this – and drag our children into it.”

More broadly, the former secretary pointed to an increased incidence in reports of political violence and threats in recent years.

An April report from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs found a “serious escalation” in the risk environment for political violence in 2025. Additionally, U.S. Capitol Police said earlier this year that the number of threats the agency investigated jumped by nearly 60 percent in 2025.

 

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