Arpaio Takes Final Stab On Obama Birther Issue

By Lorin McLain

Sheriff Joe doesn’t plan on leaving office without making a final stink on the Obama birther debacle. Maricopa County’s embattled sheriff on Thursday held a press conference claiming his office has new evidence showing President Obama’s birth certificate was indeed forged. Arpaio says his five-year investigation finds “nine points of forgery” in the document.

Arpaio said the investigation headed up by Chief Investigator Mike Zullo finds “forensic analysis showing the characters on the document are pieced together from secondary sources.” Zullo said the certificate provided by the White House in the heat of the inquiry in 2011 appears to be “created” by sourcing an official birth certificate from Hawaii belonging to an individual named Johana Ah’nee. During the press conference, reporters were shown a video illustrating how the nine elements were lifted and placed on Obama’s birth certificate to make it look real.

“My concern was not where the president was born, but whether the document presented to the people was a fraud,” Arpaio said. Zullo said the goal of the investigation was to put the birther issue to rest by clearing the birth certificate, but their analysis rendered them unable to do so. “All we have ever wanted was the truth in this matter, with the great hope that the document was indeed a valid representation of an original document,” he said.

After the press conference, Arpaio did not offer to provide copies of the evidence or to post it online, and did not take questions from reporters. He said he was presenting the findings and more evidence to the federal government for further investigation. President Obama gave his final press conference on 2016 on Friday and was not questioned on the issue.