Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who lives in Traverse City with his husband Chasten and two children, was the target of a "politically motivated hoax" that separated him from his children after a false police report was filed against him, he said in a post Friday.

According to Buttigieg, a Michigan State Police officer and a Child Protective Services (CPS) worker came to his home and said an allegation had been made against him concerning his four-year-old twins. A forensic interview was scheduled the next day for the twins, and Buttigieg was told he could no longer be alone with his children. The children went to spend the night with their grandparents, and what followed were "among the darkest hours" of Buttigieg's life, he said.

After the children were interviewed the next day, Buttigieg was informed an "anonymous caller had contacted CPS," he wrote. "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 had never been to the town where the woman claimed she met him. The officer "made clear that he believed this was politically motivated, and said it would not be referred to a prosecutor," Buttigieg wrote. "Nothing in the forensic interview with the children, which was conducted by trained personnel, had led to concerns."

Buttigieg was then allowed to be back around his children unsupervised. "Everyone knows politics is ugly these days," he wrote. "It’s always been ugly, but now it feels more and more like bloodsport. Cruelty, lies, and even deadly violence have been directed at political figures across the ideological spectrum...even so, this is different."

"My in-laws had to explain to my children, whom we have taught to avoid talking to strangers, that they would need to have a conversation, one at a time and for nearly an hour each, in a place they’d never been, with adults they did not know, who would ask questions we weren’t allowed to know either," he wrote. "For twenty-four deeply distressing hours, we had no idea what I was accused of or what was about to happen. We could not understand someone abusing the system like this in order to hurt me and my family with an absurd and easily refuted allegation of a horrific crime."

Buttigieg said the police officer, the CPS worker, and the forensic interviewers who spoke to his children "were just following procedure and doing their jobs - admirable jobs that must be incredibly difficult every day, protecting the most vulnerable children from the most horrible threats. When a serious allegation is made, they respond. But in this case, their time and resources were wasted in a cruel, politically motivated hoax that harmed our family."

Buttigieg wrote that he could not "describe the mix of rage and sadness" he felt that the incident involved his children. "They are four years old," he wrote. "Four. They do not know or care what a Democrat or a Republican is. They don’t know how politics works." He added: "I don’t know who did this, or exactly what prompted them to try. It’s not lost on me that this happened soon after we shared photos of our family on social media for Father’s Day. Or that this occurred during a month meant to make families like ours feel welcome and safe."

Buttigieg noted that filing a false report is a crime, and he planned to press civil and/or criminal charges if possible. "Meanwhile, we will continue to do our work, supporting and speaking out for causes we believe in, according to our values," he wrote.

The Michigan State Police provided the following statement to The Ticker about the case. "This week, the Michigan State Police received an anonymous report. The Michigan State Police and Child Protective Services responded and determined the report was false. 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."