Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio held a press conference in Phoenix on Thursday afternoon where he announced, after a five year investigation, his detectives have determined that the birth certificate presented by President Barack Obama was a fraudulently created document which has been represented as an official copy of the original certificate. Arpaio said his investigators have been working this case since August 2011 after the Tea Party asked him to investigate. These “new revelations” come despite repeated confirmations by major news outlets, and President Obama himself that the birth certificate is indeed genuine. Even one of the founding “birthers,” Donald Trump, has moved on to dispel this so-called “birther conspiracy.” But, Arpaio is confident he has uncovered the truth.
“We had to follow the evidence,” Arpaio said during the press briefing. The lead investigator, Mike Zullo, presented a video which claimed to show the Obama birth certificate shows “9 points of forgery.” He claims it was copied from another document. He says they consulted several experts from all across the world including in Italy. We’ve posted above clips from the press conference, which include this video.
The investigators took aim at the media for the way they have characterized their investigation. “You have continued to mischaracterize this. This was not about where President Obama was born. This was about his birth certificate,” said the Maricopa County public information officer.
“I didn’t want to be the guy that figured everything out, I wanted to be the clearinghouse,” Zullo told reporters.
“It’s a fake, and this carries federal penalties,” he continued. Arpaio said he plans to turn the investigation over to the President and Congress in the next month (aka likely President Trump). At the conclusion of the conference, Arpaio urged members of Congress to hold hearings that are open to the public.
“If they can hold hearing, I’m not trying to be sarcastic,” Arpaio continued, “If they can hold hearing on un-deflated footballs, why they can’t you hold one on this?” Arpaio did not take any further questions from the media.
84-year-old Arpaio lost his reelection bid in November to the Democratic contender. The sheriff is among the last high-profile “birthers” left, who question whether the President was born in the United States. Former birther President-elect Donald Trump held his own presser during his campaign, where he acknowledged that President Obama was indeed born in this country, and that he indeed had a legitimate birth certificate.
This is a breaking news story and LawNewz.com will update accordingly.
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