A lie about child abuse separated Pete Buttigieg from his kids. No one will be charged for the false report

A false accusation brought the government to Pete Buttigieg and Chasten Buttigieg’s door, forced their 4-year-old twins into forensic interviews and separated the children from the former transportation secretary overnight. No one will face criminal charges.

An Indiana prosecutor has declined to charge the woman who made the child welfare report, concluding that she could not form the criminal intent required for a conviction, according to The Washington Post.

Marshall County Prosecutor E. Nelson Chipman Jr. acknowledged that the complaint triggered an intrusive investigation of an innocent person and his family. But in a July 29 email to Indiana State Police, Chipman wrote that the woman’s history of alcohol abuse, hallucinations and delusional thinking left prosecutors unable to prove that she knowingly made a false report.

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Authorities have identified the woman in records only as “TJ.” She reportedly made the complaint while visiting relatives in Indiana and later returned to Alabama.

The prosecutor said the woman responded to voices others could not hear and expressed grandiose beliefs. During her brief Indiana stay, she also had at least three encounters with police, including an arrest on a domestic battery allegation during which authorities recorded a blood-alcohol level of 0.32, the Post reports.

Buttigieg described the report in June as a “cruel, politically motivated hoax,” and said a responding officer also believed that politics motivated it.

In its original June report, The Advocate detailed how the complaint brought a Michigan State Police officer and a Child Protective Services worker to the Buttigiegs’ home.

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Officials told Pete Buttigieg he could not be alone with his and Chasten Buttigieg’s children until they interviewed them separately. The twins spent the night with Chasten Buttigieg’s parents.

“The twenty-four hours until they returned are among the darkest hours of my life,” Pete Buttigieg wrote at the time.

Michigan State Police confirmed directly to The Advocate that investigators determined the report was false. The agency warned that false complaints divert police officers and child welfare workers from families facing genuine emergencies.

Records obtained by the Post have since exposed a breakdown that crossed state lines. Indiana child welfare authorities reportedly passed the complaint to Michigan without giving officials the caller’s name or contact information. Michigan police waited six days after approaching Buttigieg before attempting to identify the person behind the allegation.

By then, the family had already endured the investigation. Strangers questioned the children without their parents present. Pete Buttigieg had been barred from being alone with them. The accusation had entered the family’s home and disrupted it.

Related: Michigan AG investigates how an unvetted, false allegation separated Pete Buttigieg from his children

Child welfare experts who reviewed the records for the Post said poor judgment and inadequate communication between Indiana and Michigan authorities contributed to the response. The Michigan attorney general’s office is now investigating both the allegation and the way authorities handled it. A spokesperson confirmed Tuesday that the investigation remains open.

Pete and Chasten Buttigieg have spent years watching their marriage and parenthood become material for Republican politicians and conservative commentators. Pete Buttigieg was ridiculed for taking parental leave to care for the couple’s premature newborn twins in 2021. Their family has repeatedly been treated as an argument rather than a family.

A Buttigieg spokesperson declined to comment on the prosecutor’s decision but previously said the family was seeking answers and accountability.