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Sheriff Joe Arpaio closes probe of Obama birth certificate

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio talked about the findings from a five-year investigation into the authenticity of President Barack Obama’s birth certificate during a press conference today, in Phoenix.

PHOENIX >> Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona has fixated on the authenticity of President Barack Obama’s birth certificate for more than five years, going so far as to send a deputy and member of his volunteer posse to Hawaii to question officials.

He earned plaudits from Donald Trump and became one of the nation’s leading voices on the debunked controversy over Obama’s birthplace. Arpaio closed his yearslong investigation Thursday, ending a chapter that critics denounced as a shameless ploy to raise money from his right-wing base.

The news conference from the media-savvy sheriff came three weeks before the end of his 24 years as metro Phoenix’s top law enforcer and five weeks before Obama leaves office. He complained to a crowd of about 75 supporters that his claims about the document weren’t taken seriously.

“We and anyone else who dared to question the document have been maligned, falsely labeled and grossly criticized,” Arpaio said, refusing to take questions from reporters.

The sheriff took up the “birther” mantle as he faced some of his worst legal troubles, including a racial profiling case that discredited his patrols targeting immigrants and a grand jury inquiry into his failed investigations of local political enemies.

He refused to back away from the investigation three months ago when Trump, an Arpaio ally, relented on his claim that Obama wasn’t born in the U.S.

Maricopa County Supervisor Steve Gallardo, a longtime Arpaio critic, said the investigation was a publicity stunt to raise the sheriff’s national political profile and bring in campaign dollars.

“He was trying to throw meat to his base, and that’s exactly what he did,” Gallardo said. “He threw red meat.”

Arpaio was not the only Arizona politician to plunge into the erroneous effort.

The Arizona Legislature passed a bill in 2011 that would have required Obama and other presidential candidates to prove they were U.S. citizens before their names could appear on the ballot. It was vetoed by the GOP governor.

Several Electoral College members even questioned Obama’s eligibility to serve as president as they cast their votes for Republican Mitt Romney four years ago.

Arpaio has said he launched the probe after nearly 250 people connected to an Arizona tea-party group requested it. He pressed forward despite aides warning he would be ridiculed.

In the 2014 documentary “The Joe Show,” Arpaio was seen brushing aside his publicist’s prediction that he would be viewed as a clown. The sheriff said the investigation would help his fundraising efforts.

“It may look nuts, but you know what, it’s going to be pretty good,” Arpaio said.

The sheriff won praise several months later in a tweet from Trump: “Congratulations to @RealSheriffJoe on his successful Cold Case Posse investigation which claims @BarackObama’s ‘birth certificate’ is fake.”

Arpaio farmed out the investigation to volunteers on his posse, which is funded through donations, in anticipation of criticism he was throwing away taxpayer money.

In 2012, he said the investigation revealed that there was probable cause to believe Obama’s long-form birth certificate was a computer-generated forgery and that the selective service card completed by Obama in 1980 was likely a fraud.

The facts say otherwise. Hawaii officials repeatedly confirmed Obama’s citizenship, and the courts rebuffed a series of lawsuits.

Arpaio insisted he wasn’t investigating whether Obama was a U.S. citizen but examining an allegation that the document was fraudulent. But critics say it was a calculated swipe at the identity and legitimacy of the nation’s first African-American president.

Though Arpaio promised no taxpayer money would be spent on the investigation, the sheriff sent a deputy to Hawaii to accompany the posse’s top investigator. The leader of the posse said it tried to pay back $9,600 for the costs of the deputy’s travel and time, but officials declined to accept the money.

116 responses to “Sheriff Joe Arpaio closes probe of Obama birth certificate”

  1. HanabataDays says:

    May he dive into the nearest lua and gulp down a floater when he comes up for air.

    • allie says:

      another trump joker…trump played uninformed voters for chumps

      • amela says:

        Maybe he was trying to be the next Secretary of State. Anyway the truth is Obama was an illegal immigrant but hey he was President for 8 years and he’s done. Laughs on you conspirators.

        • copperwire9 says:

          uh-huh. sure.

        • thos says:

          Actually some believe it was Jimi Hendrix, then a biggie in the Seattle area, who schtuped rebellious, young, unmarried Stanley Ann Dunham.

          As soon as her shocked parents learned their very young, unmarried white daughter was preggars (and by whom) they hastened off to the land of inter racial tolerance where they searched for and found a young UH foreign exchange student from Kenya who, for some under the table cash, would claim patrimony and agree to a timely “marriage” to spare the girl and her family the lasting shame of a mixed race b a s t a r d born out of wedlock.

          If so, this would explain why the “father” of the current occupant of the White House so hastily abandoned his “wife” and “son” so soon after the birth of said “son”, move to the Boston area where (even though already married in both Kenya and Hawaii) took up with another woman in academia.

          Upon later returning to his homeland said “father” sought to aggrandize himself as a local political big shot – – with less and less success once folks were onto his scam – – while deepening his thirst for the well known and high proof yield from Scotland distilleries which combined with lack luster high speed driving skills and poor roads finally did him in.

          It was the dream of that “father” that inspired the current occupant of the White House to make the brazen attempt and – – thanks to a preponderance of gullible racists in our country – – actually pull off one the great scams of history, who despite being a gold plated phony from academia and never having had a real job in his life, wrote (or had ghost written) two “memoirs, successfully sold himself to the suckers to become: POTUS 44.

          Phineas T. (“there’s a s u c k e r born every minute”) Barnum must have spun in his grave on 20 Jan 2009 to realize he had been born a century too early and thereby missed the great swindle-ready population of 21st century America, who were not merely ready, but eager to be conned that their “guilty white privilege” might be forgiven.

        • MillionMonkeys says:

          Yep, they should make it a rule that every presidential candidate has to submit a valid birth certificate and their tax returns for the past 10 years. Fair, yeah?

    • MillionMonkeys says:

      Scary USA. Half the voters are so underedcuated they can’t tell the difference between normal news and fake news. Anyone who believes in the birther theory should have their vote taken away…and their right to run for office.

      • allie says:

        true and Trump is playing them all for fools

        • thos says:

          When it comes to some one so eager to be played for a fool . . . well, no need to finish THAT thought, eh wot?

          Stones in parabolic trajectory, glass habitats and all that.

      • thos says:


        voters are so underedcuated – – ( AHEM ! ) – – they can’t tell the difference between normal news and fake news

        Indeed as you your self, Mega-Chimp, have demonstrated on so MANY occasions.

        By all means DOOOOO carry on.

        SOOOO amusing!

        • MillionMonkeys says:

          Ask your bro sarge22. Every time he posted a link to an article, I clicked and read it, with an open mind. I’m not a biased liberal, not a Hillary lover. I want to know what the truth is so that I can vote for the better person. Many people on both sides decide on a candidate, then close their minds to anything that challenges their current belief.

          Ask sarge. Every article of his that I read with an open mind had numerous flaws, sensationalism, and/or fabricated facts. Many of them simply wrote a misleading, tantalizing headline, like “Chelsea clash with former Clinton Foundation staffer EXPOSED.”

          There are a lot of fake, biased, hillbilly news out there. Whichever side you are on, if you only pay attention to news that confirm your current world view, you leave yourself open to those who prey on the ignorant. Don’t be ignorant.

        • aomohoa says:

          As usual you sound like you are on something you should not be or forgot to take the medication you should be.

    • CloudForest says:

      9 confirmed points of forgery.
      Obama’s released birth certificate is a construct and abject fraud.
      Do not call me names, do not call me uneducated, for I worked with FBI forensic analyst concerning such matters.
      I am an American citizen and either we all live under the same rule of law, or we are slaves to the powerful elite, the political class and their designated minions.
      Which shall we be, citizens of a free society or slaves to those whom will rule us?

      • TigerEye says:

        Well, at least you didn’t claim to head your department at the FBI until the powers that be decided that your penchant for “The Truth” made you too inconvenient to keep around… Or, something.

        “Do not call me names, do not call me uneducated…” Okay, I’ll bite: or what?

        • CloudForest says:

          It is as fake as a $3 bill.
          Yet you use innuendo and deflection – must have been great at chess.

        • thos says:


          or what?

          Or else your illusion may be shattered should someone explain to you how (let alone why) the so called “certificate of live birth” that was grudgingly released was so obviously photo shopped.

        • TigerEye says:

          Hey, Cloudy. Just pointing out that you’re the one who spun off into citizens, slaves and free society under an article about Joe Arpaio’s nutty theory and then accused me of deflection. You even threw in a chess reference.

          Real analysts are careful with the conclusions they draw and present data that support them. I don’t expect they’d pull factoids out of the ether, dump them haphazardly and ungrammatically onto newspaper blogs and expect people to take them seriously.

          Try following thosser’s example: when he arranges his piles of manure, they’re at least symmetrical.

      • mctruck says:

        So, you must be the only gem associated with the FBI who is able to identify Obama’s birth certificate as a fraud!?, give me a break, Dick Tracy wannabe. You probably was the janitor for that department.

        • CloudForest says:

          Janitors need respect too, they often clean up the mess that incapable people make with everything they touch and do.
          Better to be an observant janitor than a prissy fool with a big mouth and low IQ.

        • thos says:

          Well said CloudForest

          And who better to clean up the steaming pile of political [redacted] deposited by the current occupant of the White House over the last 8 years than none other than – –<><><><><> – – our very own brand new PRESIDENT ELECT!!!

          Looks like he is destined to be a modern day Hercules, mighty enough to clean out the equivalent of the Augean Stables into which so much stinking [redacted] has been excreted by said occupant.

          Certainly it is beyond doubt that our own brand new PRESIDENT ELECT will need Herculean strength for that daunting task.

        • mctruck says:

          Yeah, so if you were indeed a janitor, it confirms who the fool was. You have no credentials to backup your shitty claims. The one with the big mouth and low IQ.
          And thos is clearly a bigger fool to follow you into the depths of Hell. Both fools to the greatest degree, like the Sheriff; even after Trump admitted before the Nation that Obama was born in USA. You guys are too stupid to recognize if your houses were on fire.

        • mctruck says:

          By the way, “CloudForest?” taken seperately or all together in this case, makes for not seeing clearly, poor visibility; that suites you to a “T”.
          No wonder you make unintelligent comments, but then again it suites you to a “T”.

      • aomohoa says:

        What are you saying? You make no sense. By the way my husband’s good friend signed Obama’s birth certificate.

  2. deepdiver311 says:

    obama was born in kenya, his grandmother witnessed the birth. he entered occidental college as barry soetero, a foreign student from indonesia
    dis bugga can lie!!

    auwe

    • deepdiver311 says:

      and, tutu’s don’t lie!!
      aloha!

      • MillionMonkeys says:

        Your writing is so bad, you must be from some weird foreign country.

        The undereducated should have their votes disqualified, until they go back and finish high school (or eighth grade, at least).

        • dontbelieveinmyths says:

          I agree with you regarding needing a litmus test to vote. However, if it ever were to happen, liberals would be up in arms! You know that democrats rely on the “victim” votes right? Uneducated minorities, immigrants, and so on.

        • CEI says:

          IRT Monkey man: Very astute, I agree with you 100%. The undereducated dependent class living on the democrat plantation who monolithically vote democrat should not be allowed to vote.

        • MillionMonkeys says:

          Agree, dontbelieve and CEI. There are i g n o r a n t folks on both sides. Ask your bro sarge22. I clicked and read every one of his articles. I read them with an open, unbiased mind because I actually want to know the truth. I found numerous distortions, fake facts, and misleading headlines in almost of those articles. I posted my thoughts and he never replied, so I assume he agreed.

          The great Information Age has turned into the Age of Fake News. Everyone should be better educated.

      • koae says:

        deepdiver311, can you tell us the name of the tutu who witnessed Obama,s birth? And where is this tutu from? If she’s from Kenya I can show you a few emails I received from Kenya telling me I have over a million dollars waiting for me as soon as I provide them with personal info.

    • gonesh says:

      Explain his 1961 birth announcement in the 1961 Honolulu Advertiser..Or did the conspiracy start back then? Bunch of coconut heads.

      • MakaniKai says:

        Right! gonesh – this is PAU already!!! I am no fan of Obama however, he is POTUS like it or hate it.

        He was born on O’ahu, doubters get over it!!!!!

    • koae says:

      deepdiver311, did you ever go to school?

    • ehowzit says:

      THERE ARE PICS OF HIM AT A HONOLULLU BEACH LIFEGUARD STATION WHEN HE WAS A KID TO PLAYING BASKETBALL FOR PUNAHOU.

      • Lindall says:

        Also don’t forget his name is written in the cement at Punahou when he went there all those years ago and it is still there.

      • thos says:

        Also THERE ARE PICS OF HIM . . . smoking dope in a car with the windows rolled up, along with member of his choom gang.

        SOOOOO popular even back then.

        Swooooon, you f a t u o u s [redacted], swooooon as you recall the ecstasy when the tingles first crawled up between your legs.

        At his expensive private school he learned a valuable lesson that would serve him for life: he would never fail for having over-estimated the credibility of the s u c k e r s on whom he depended for his life of privilege – – he could endlessly play them for marks without fear they would ever tip wise to his scam, no matter how brazen.

    • samidunn says:

      In his first book Obama wrote that he was born in Kenya. He wouldn’t lie about something like that, would he?

    • aomohoa says:

      That is not true at all. LOL I know the doctor who signed the birth certificate.

  3. AhiPoke says:

    Give it up already. The man has only one month left so it makes no difference.

    • thos says:

      How dreadfully WRONG you are!

      History is going to crawl up the current occupant of the White House’s [redacted] with a microscope to uncover the treasure trove of corruption and conniving that is the legacy of this brazen phony.

      You wait and see: The fun is just BEGINNING.

  4. CEI says:

    Sheriff Joe for Department of Homeland Security. If the Russians can hack the election then surely a fake birth certificate can be fabricated to show Barry was born in Hawaii.

    • allie says:

      no hon…Kapiolani has his full record and we know his mother was here at that time..giving birth. He is all-American and a Punahou graduate.

      • d_bullfighter says:

        No hon; time to put on your thinking cap allie. Please tell, since when does being all-American and a Punahou graduate certify one as being born in the US?
        When you or I or every single US citizen applies for a passport, tell me – is an electronic version as evidence of one’s US citizenship acceptable to the State Dept? Of course not as they require a paper hard copy – NO EXCEPTIONS. Yet, Obama foisted an electronic version of his claimed birth certificate on the internet and it is acceptable and automatically held as genuine. Why the double-standard and BTW where is that darn hard copy? Surely the POTUS should be held to an equal if not higher standard of evidence.

    • roughrider says:

      Gotta be a place in Trump’s cabinet for “Sheriff Joe.” Maybe he can be in charge of guarding the liquor cabinet?

    • TigerEye says:

      Yes, and if they can send robotic vehicles to Mars, surely someone can build a skateboard for an elephant.

  5. Denominator says:

    There doesn’t seem to be much difference between demanding recounts and questioning Obama’s birth certificate. They are both stupid and pointless. But, Democrats only get excited about one of them.

    • jusris says:

      So are you equating the two things? You calling those Recounters just as LOONEY as the Birthers? If so at least we can see that they EXIST in BOTH parties…”We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.” Maya Angelou

      • thos says:

        You can always tell:

        When someone is forced to resort to a quote from Maya Angelou for leverage, they have already lost the argument.

        • jusris says:

          IRT this: But there is no argument on my behalf, just observations…Your problem seems to be you are looking for an argument at every turn, imagining that everyone is against you and that you are the victim…So sad that you choose to stay divided…But not like WE have any sway in the real world right, if WE did WE wouldn’t be on these boards trying to measure our d—s…#MAGA

  6. skinut says:

    Apparently, since he lost the election, he feels the need to remain relevant.

  7. MillionMonkeys says:

    Apparently this sheriff has the qualifications to run for president. Trump only pushed the birther theory 8 years and he won. This sheriff hasn’t given up on the kooky conspiracy theory, so he should do even better than Trump. He can make Amerika GREATER than Trump!!!

  8. 808comp says:

    I think he should worry about his own problems.

  9. koae says:

    It’s hard to believe that people today are so ignorant as to say Obama was not born in the US. Hospital records showed and newspaper records showed that he was born in Honolulu. To think that way back at the time of his birth that somehow people knew he would someday be POTUS so faked records of his birth were created. These ignorant people must still think the earth is flat.

    • thos says:

      Nopitiy nope nope nope nope.

      “Ignorant people” still trust the web of ultra-quackery the current occupant of the White House spools out like a spider – – despite the gathering mountain range of evidence that they have been played for saps for the last 8 years.

  10. CloudForest says:

    FORGERY CONFIRMED
    Every other “headline” or “news article” is irrelevant.
    You can call names, disparage the messenger or do as you will, but the facts that Barak Obama’s birth certificate is a construct and abject forgery is confirmed.
    Now what? There is no 3rd term. And I doubt if anyone wishes to stir the pot to get to who is the forger and who their criminal alliances are, so most likely this felonious event will go unpunished.
    Such is the state of American politics.
    I would hope that our new President will have the courage to enforce our national laws against the highest and mightiest amongst us, but … ….

  11. d_bullfighter says:

    This article fails to mention that the result of Arpaio’s investigation concludes that Obama’s birth certificate is indeed fake.

  12. wrightj says:

    Barry is out of office next month; no further investigation is necessary.

  13. NanakuliBoss says:

    He should have personally come to Honolulu, so I could dump his lard azz in Diamond Head.

  14. hanabatadayz says:

    white folks still mad that we had a black president..get over it

  15. Bothrops says:

    Why is the SA giving this space?

  16. KWAY says:

    and the stupid just keeps on coming

  17. paulokada says:

    Recently got a copy of my birth certificate and it’s not what I remember it looked like. The original from the Hospital looked black like a photo negative and was smaller. I am sure this copy is not the same or could it be the Mandela Effect.

  18. justmyview371 says:

    Can’t the AP write an unbiased story instead of this garbage. AP concludes early on in the story that the investigation is “erroneous”. It cites these facts to prove its point — “Hawaii officials repeatedly confirmed Obama’s citizenship, and the courts rebuffed a series of lawsuits.” The opinions of Hawaii officials or the courts are probably biased, but more importantly they are not “facts”. There are other elements in the story showing the bias of AP. AP — JUST GIVE US THE NEWS, NOT YOUR BIASES. If you can’t do this, tell us your story is an Editorial.

    • TigerEye says:

      Very funny.

      So you won’t believe any documentation coming out of Hawaii. That leads one to wonder what you would accept as proof. I would bet real money that there is no way the president’s birthplace could be presented to you as Hawaii in any way that you would accept.

      Things aren’t nonfactual just because you don’t like the facts they support

    • thos says:

      Can’t the AP write an unbiased story instead of this garbage?

      Surely that must be a rhetorical question, no?

      I mean look at the tons of ‘fake news’ refuse dumped on an increasingly impatient electorate, tired of being swindled by our so called “news” media – – and determined to do something about it last November 8.

  19. lokela says:

    Oh c’mon nothing better to do? Obama pau already and you idiots still harping on birth certificates? Better check your own?

  20. SteveToo says:

    Sheriff Joe is a GREAT MAN for law enforcement. But WTF? Obama’s mama was a citizen and that makes him one NO MATTER WHERE IN THE UNIVERSE HE WAS BORN.

  21. Numilalocal says:

    I guess my birth certificate is fake and I’m not an American citizen. And mine is from 1959 and Hawaii wasn’t even a state. Maybe that’s why I haven’t had a response to my application for the position of court jester in the drumph White House.

  22. FunnyYams says:

    Just one of the ever enduring conspiracy theories circulated around the internet. Ah, modern times!!!

  23. keaukaha says:

    Deepdiver look like you diving too deep cause your brain is getting the bends. By your comments look like too late to decompress.

    • thos says:

      It isn’t the brain that gets the “bends” from too rapid a decompression. Nitrogen coming out of solution that forms at joints is what causes painful “bends”. What can happen to the brain is a fatal embolus – – gas blockage of vital blood flow.

      Better remain in the shallows with your water wings, Skippy, and stay out of places meant for adults.

  24. Marauders_1959 says:

    Shoot… had he ran for POTUS… I’d have a hard time deciding who to vote for: Trump or Joe Arpaio.

  25. scooters says:

    Obama is Not the first African-American as there’s no such thing. He’s the first American President of African descent. Either you’re an African or an American…can’t be both. Don’t hyphenate American…

    • CloudForest says:

      Obama is hapa.
      His birth certificate is a CONFIRMED FORGERY.
      Where he was born is irrelevant in this instance.
      Everything else is just a smoke screen on that singular fact of fraud.

      • skinut says:

        Once again, proof please. Saying it over and over again doesn’t make it true. And if there was any proof at all, why would trump concede that obama was born here?

        • CloudForest says:

          Proof of forgery:
          Kerning
          Halos
          Incorrect and Unavailable font(s)
          Multiple Layers (X9)
          Not an actual PDF
          Photo Shopped
          Photo Corrected
          And now:
          Found the Source Document [ Johanna Ah’Nee -born 16 days after Obama]
          Drop and Drag Elements that are identical to the Source Document
          Israeli Defense Forces Cyber Division
          Italy’s cyber crimes division
          Computer Experts
          Document Experts
          Copier Experts
          Software Experts
          Etc.
          Etc.
          Etc.
          All of the above confirmed that this document is an abject forgery.
          Yet, if you use facts to a liberal, all they do is call your mother names and try and shoot the messenger with vague references, and vile innuendo.

  26. sailfish1 says:

    That EX-Sheriff Arpaio is an illegal from Mexico.

  27. bringbackamerica says:

    Read Arpaio’s report and look at his evidence for yourself. At the very least it raises questions.
    There is not one doctor, nurse, administrator or hospital employee that can confirm the birth at Kapiolani. The birth certificate number is totally out of sequence with all other births on that day. There are various fonts on the certificate that do not match. His research goes on and on. Don’t know the answer and don’t much care but the facts should be known someday.

  28. Mythman says:

    I must have been in a haze because the press conf I watched was nothing at all like the AP story above. Amazing bias by AP, which is the kind of journalism one can get by sitting on a bar stool in any joint anywhere as it is all gleaned from prior AP stories. AP is garbage these days. Reuters is at least trying. Thos is in rare form today. I like Allie but her inherent female arrogance is showing. What’s with that? feminine narcissism? I prescribe Allie watching several dozen 1950s H-Wood movies, where the Mom stays home and keeps thing organized while the males pace themselves with the real world to earn a living and the teenagers prepare to go off to fight the next war with the commies. Were I on the jury the investigator was making the presentation of evidence to, he would get my vote – very convincing the doc was doctored. Now what? The whole scheme unravels. Let’s hope so.

  29. Sandybeach says:

    Clown Arpio and the puppet of Trump.

  30. tutulois says:

    I guess he couldn’t resist getting his name in the news one more time. I believe he himself is facing criminal charges — maybe he thought maligning Obama and the state of Hawaii would help get him off !

  31. ready2go says:

    What a complete scam and waste of time and money.

  32. BadBingo says:

    I, for one, am delighted that this nasty, old, bigot will soon be off the national stage. He should have had the decency to retire years ago thus forestalling becoming the joke that he is. The world will be a better place with him silenced.

  33. CloudForest says:

    Proof of forgery:
    Kerning
    Halos
    Incorrect and Unavailable font(s)
    Multiple Layers (X9)
    Not an actual PDF
    Photo Shopped
    Photo Corrected
    And now:
    Found the Source Document [ Johanna Ah’Nee -born 16 days after Obama]
    Drop and Drag Elements that are identical to the Source Document
    Israeli Defense Forces Cyber Division
    Italy’s cyber crimes division
    Computer Experts
    Document Experts
    Copier Experts
    Software Experts
    Etc.
    Etc.
    Etc.
    All of the above confirmed that this document is an abject forgery.
    Yet, if you use facts to a liberal, all they do is call your mother names and try and shoot the messenger with vague references, and vile innuendo.

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