Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio held a press conference on Thursday to release information he says proves that President Barack Obama's long form birth certificate is a forgery.
Arpaio said he received information in 2011 that indicated the certificate could have been forged, and he consulted forensic experts from around the world who agree it is not authentic.
Arpaio and his team are not claiming that Obama was not born in Hawaii, but only that the long form birth certificate is not authentic. So-called "birthers" have questioned Obama's place-of-birth, saying he was born in Kenya, which they say disqualifies him to serve as president of the United States. Obama says he was born in Hawaii.
"We had to follow the evidence," Arpaio said before turning the briefing over to lead investigator Mike Zullo.
Zullo showed video of Obama's birth certificate alongside one of a person named Johanna Ah'Nee. Zullo said that the forensic experts found "nine points of forgery" from which parts of Zullo's birth certificate was copied to the one purporting to be Obama's.
Among them was a stamped date that had the exact same angle. By comparison, a set of twins born five minutes apart had birth certificates where the stamp did not align exactly.
"I didn't want to be the guy that figured everything out, I wanted to be the clearinghouse," Zullo said. "It's a fake, and this carries federal penalties."
Zullo said the "safety paper" used by Hawaii is easily obtained on eBay, but even at that, no original piece of paper has been seen by very many members of the press. Instead, the White House provided a .jpg image to the Associated Press, which distributed it to members.
As for the stamp, one was obtained at Kinko's for $25, "no questions asked."
Arpaio would not take questions from the media afterward, but called on Congress to look into the matter.
"If you can hold hearings on underinflated footballs, why can't you hold hearings on this?" he said. "Look at our evidence."
The 84-year-old sheriff lost his latest bid for re-election, and faces an April 4 trial on a misdemeanor contempt charge for continuing immigration patrols for 17 months after a judge in a racial profiling case ordered him to stop.
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