#pate buttigieg

Christopher Wiggins at The Advocate:

Michigan’s attorney general is investigating how an unsubstantiated tip led authorities to keep the former transportation secretary from being alone with his 4-year-old twins. Authorities separated former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg from his children before taking basic steps to determine whether the accusation against him was credible, according to police records obtained by The Washington Post. They reveal failures across two states.

The Michigan attorney general’s office is investigating the false allegation and government response, The Washington Post reported Monday. Michigan investigators waited six days after confronting Buttigieg and telling him he could not be alone with his children before attempting to identify the person behind the report. Authorities later described the complainant as possibly “mentally unstable” and examined evidence suggesting the accusation may have been politically motivated. By then, the damage had been done.

Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, sent their 4-year-old twins to stay with grandparents. The children were questioned alone in separate hour-long interviews. Both said they felt safe, the paper reports. The former South Bend, Indiana mayor described the roughly 24-hour separation as “among the darkest hours of my life,” in a Substack post detailing the situation. The ordeal began after Indiana child welfare authorities received a hotline report containing “very limited information.” Indiana officials passed the allegation to Michigan, where the Buttigiegs live, but withheld the caller’s name and contact information, citing agency policy.

A Michigan State Police trooper and a child welfare official arrived at Buttigieg’s home on June 23. Buttigieg has said investigators initially refused to tell him what he had been accused of doing. They instructed him either to stay at a hotel or send the children elsewhere until interviews could be conducted the next day. According to The Post, records indicate that neither state meaningfully vetted the claim before disrupting the family. Michigan police did not seek the caller’s identity until June 29, after Buttigieg had gone public and the department had announced that the allegation was unfounded.