A fake report to Child Protective Services forced Pete Buttigieg's children to undergo official interviews and separated them from their parents for about 24 hours, according to NPR.

Authorities confirmed the CPS report was not real. But once a child welfare report gets filed, investigators have to follow through. As part of that required process, Buttigieg's children were sent for forensic interviews — questioning by child welfare experts designed to check for abuse. By law, parents cannot be in the room during these interviews.

Buttigieg served as Secretary of Transportation under President Biden and ran for president in 2020. He and his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, adopted two children. The forced separation and interviews, though temporary, amounted to the most direct disruption a false report can create.

As of June 27, 2026, no one had been arrested or charged for filing the false report.

This tactic — making up a CPS report to harass someone — is becoming more common against public officials and their families. It works differently than swatting, the practice of calling 911 with a fake emergency to send police to someone's house. With CPS, there is no 911 call to intercept. The system also keeps records private, so targets often don't know what's happening while the investigation goes on. That secrecy makes it an attractive tool for people trying to cause trouble with less risk of getting caught.

Filing a false CPS report is a crime in every state, though prosecutors rarely bring charges. The tactic sits in a gap: hard to stop before it happens, and lightly punished after.

For anyone tracking harassment of political figures, this pattern deserves attention. The ease of triggering a mandatory investigation — and the legal cover the system's confidentiality rules provide to those filing false reports — suggests CPS-based attacks may continue to multiply against public officials and their families.