Thread by @jtlarsen

Pete Buttigieg testifies today on his nomination to run the Dept. of Transportation.

I spent almost a year covering Buttigieg. He refused to speak with me, so I’m going to thread some of the things senators could ask him about today.

In 2011, Jiha’d Vasquez, 16, was found dead, hanged, on a utility tower.

In 2012, Buttigieg became mayor and Jiha’d’s mother asked him for help with the case. Common Council records show Buttigieg was at the meetings where she spoke about her son.

Jones and a local NAACP official wanted help because her son’s death had been ruled a suicide…with no autopsy and no investigation.

Items were missing from his backpack.

Jones told reporter @jharrell6468 that she asked Buttigieg to help get the case re-opened. She says he gave her his card and told her to call.

But when she did, she never got through to him, and no one ever returned her call.
tyt.com/stories/4vZLCH…

When we looked into it in 2019, the county coroner told me it would be “prudent” to reopen the case. And also told us the file on the case was missing.

Buttigieg never responded to Jones or to our questions about the case. It remains closed today.
tyt.com/stories/4vZLCH…

In 2013, Buttigieg replaced South Bend's first black police chief with a white chief with a history of civil-rights complaints.

Then the new chief was accused of failing to back up a black lieutenant, David Newton, responding to a report of an altercation involving a gun.

Buttigieg suggested that a secret state police report he had read exonerated his new chief, referring to the “varying recollections of the interviewees”--those who were there.

bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/southbendtribu…

But we obtained an excerpt of the secret report Buttigieg was citing, which said that the only recollection varying from those of other witnesses was that of Buttigieg’s chief.

documentcloud.org/documents/6007…

And Buttigieg covered up what the ISP found that happened AFTER the incident.

Specifically, the ISP suggested that Buttigieg's chief tried to get Newton to change his story.

Newton told me he suffered retaliation for refusing to lie and ultimately left the SBPD.

Members of the city’s Public Safety board WERE allowed to see the report.

I asked the board’s then-president, an ex-cop and former Buttigieg supporter, about Buttigieg’s public account of it. He called it “a lie…plain and simple.”

Buttigieg’s campaign refused to answer specific questions about his statements and handling of the incident, referring back to the letter he had issued before we reported that the ISP report contradicted his letter.

The Public Safety board ex-pres. also told us that Buttigieg fired a city attorney for failing to stop the state police investigation into his new chief.

He shared with us what he said was his journal entry at the time:

It turned out that the incident only went to the state police because Buttigieg didn’t deal with it himself.

Council minutes show that a black South Bend reverend said he went public with it because Buttigieg refused to listen to him.

tyt.com/stories/4vZLCH…

One story Buttigieg DID get asked about was his removal of Darryl Boykins, South Bend’s first black police chief, and his refusal to release secret police tapes, the existence of which first came to light just a few months into Buttigieg’s mayoralty.
cnn.com/2019/04/17/pol…

Almost immediately, the police staffer who heard the tapes said there was racist rhetoric on it.

But Buttigieg said legal issues tied his hands on releasing them.

As I reported, though, there was lots he could’ve found out without listening to the tapes.
tyt.com/stories/4vZLCH…

Buttigieg has said for years that he didn’t know whether he could even ask what was on the tapes.

But I obtained documents showing that, in fact, Buttigieg’s lawyers had done exactly that, secretly, in 2013.

Buttigieg’s campaign told me he kept a firewall between him and the litigation, but multiple lawyers told me there was no conceivable legal reason for doing so.

And no explanation for why Buttigieg’s lawyers wouldn’t have told him that he COULD ask.
tyt.com/stories/4vZLCH…

The documents detailed accounts of conversations one of the cops allegedly had with Buttigieg donors about replacing Boykins, the city’s black chief, once Buttigieg became mayor.

One cop reportedly spoke with Buttigieg directly and came back with the assessment that Buttigieg would remove Boykins once he became mayor.

The cop who said he spoke with Buttigieg told me he doesn’t remember saying Boykins was done, but does recall Buttigieg saying during his mayoral campaign that he was open to alternatives to Boykins.

Buttigieg has never confirmed or denied any of this, but his campaign cited the fact that the two donors deny it. Except they only kinda deny it.

One hung up on me. The other denied ever holding a fundraiser for Buttigieg. Then stopped responding once I sent him this flyer:

Buttigieg has said publicly that he wanted to keep Boykins on, but his current explanations of why don’t hold up.

In fact, he knew the politics of removing Boykins were tricky, and says in his own book that he planned to make changes eventually.

In 2019, Buttigieg said he removed Boykins because he lost trust in the chief after finding out about the feds' investigation from the feds, and not from Boykins.

I found secret testimony by Buttigieg's chief of staff that showed they knew about it before Boykins did.

The cops themselves later told me they specifically told Buttigieg's chief of staff they wanted the new mayor to handle the tapes.

Didn't want to give South Bend or SBPD a black eye.

Didn't care if he removed Boykins.

Buttigieg refused to do anything.

tyt.com/stories/4vZLCH…

The cops also told me things Buttigieg had heard and said related to Boykins, before and after becoming mayor.

For instance, Buttigieg asked if he could go to one top cop for help and told another they planned to help Boykins with "strategic planning."

tyt.com/stories/4vZLCH…

One Buttigieg insider told me they knew he always planned to get rid of Boykins, because Buttigieg said so in private.

I almost forgot -- Buttigieg has said the feds signaled that they'd prosecute if he didn't remove Boykins and another staffer.

Their lawyers for years have said that's not true.

In the secret 2013 testimony, Buttigieg's chief of staff confirmed it.

On another story, I collaborated with @michaelharriot of The Root.

Black SBPD officers sought Buttigieg's help re systemic racism.

He never responded.

theroot.com/mayor-pete-s-i…

Buttigieg told Vice's @ahylton26 that he was letting the system handle it, and that he couldn't address each officer's situation because of legal proceedings and investigations into the officers.

It wasn't true.

vice.com/en/article/m7q…

Hylton pressed Buttigieg, pointing out that some of the officers had good records, but Buttigieg wouldn't respond. (Watch the exchange, he ain't happy.)

Another issue is that those charges against the black officers were some of the systemic problems they were alleging.

I have no idea whether Buttigieg will do a good job at Transportation.

But anyone seeking to run a federal agency ought to be held accountable for their record -- especially on questions they've refused to answer publicly.

Oh, and Buttigieg to this day has yet to release his campaign-finance filings from his first mayoral run.

tyt.com/stories/4vZLCH…

I obtained one batch of them independently and TYT teamed up with @publicintegrity and @lateshiabeachum to look into who Buttigieg's earliest donors were:

tyt.com/stories/4vZLCH…

One thing I discovered later was that the white FIRE chief Buttigieg appointed to replace Howard Buchanon, the black chief...

...was the stepson of Buttigieg's GOP fundraiser and donor.

tyt.com/stories/4vZLCH…

For years, Buttigieg had claimed he appointed the new white fire chief because Buchanon was retiring.

As the AP revealed, it was the other way around. Buchanon retired because Buttigieg chose to replace him.

I've tried to hit the most important points, but I've left out a lot, so thank you to anyone who goes to the trouble of reading the articles themselves.

FWIW my black sources kind of laugh at me for coming back to this stuff. They're that used to no one giving a shit.

Whoa, cool!