Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said he was recently the victim of a "cruel, politically motivated hoax" that brought police to his Traverse City, Michigan, home and temporarily separated him from his adopted twins.

The one-time presidential candidate and former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, recounted the incident on his public Substack page Friday.

"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."

He characterized the incident as an instance of "swatting," a rising crime in which one party lodges a false claim against another, with the intent to draw a large, intense police presence. The term comes from the potential response of law enforcement SWAT teams.

In Buttigieg's case, the allegation brought a Child Protective Services worker and police officer to his doorstep earlier this week. They told him that someone had made an allegation against him, involving his 4-year-old twins. The investigators told Buttigieg they would interview the twins and that Buttigieg and other family members could not be present.

"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," Buttigieg wrote, adding that the children stayed with their grandparents for the night.

After the interviews, officials met with Buttigieg and a lawyer to explain the allegation: an anonymous caller had relayed a secondhand claim that Buttigieg had admitted to committing "unspeakable violent crimes." The caller claimed that Buttigieg had admitted these would-be crimes to a woman at a conference several years ago in Alabama. Buttigieg denied ever being at the location in question.

The investigating officer told him he believed the report was politically motivated and they would not seek prosecution. The CPS worker indicated that she found nothing to substantiate the allegation.

"After the officer, the CPS worker, and the lawyers all left, Chasten (Buttigieg's husband) and I hugged each other as tightly as we have any time since the day our son was put on life support as a critically ill infant just weeks after the adoption," Buttigieg wrote.

Michigan State Police did not immediately return a message seking comment. The Detroit News has also asked MSP for the incident report and an audio recording of the anonymous allegation.

Buttigieg wrote that he is "furious" and feels a "mix of rage and sadness" that the person behind the hoax would include his children in this kind of political attack.

Buttigieg said he doesn't know who might have perpetrated the hoax but noted that the attack happened during Pride Month and not long after he shared photos of his family on social media in observance of Father's Day.

Buttigieg is gay. He married teacher Chasten (née Glezman) in 2018. In 2021, the couple announced that they had adopted newborn twins.

The family resides in Traverse City, which is Chasten's hometown.

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