The investigation into Barack Obama’s birth certificate didn’t end last April, when the president released what everybody called the “long-form” version. Maricopa County, Arizona, sheriff Joe Arpaio consented to carry it forward. Presidential fraud would seem to fall outside the jurisdiction of the sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, but as he explained in a press release last night, Arpaio undertook the investigation at the behest of the “Surprise Arizona Tea Party.” Arpaio assigned the task to the “cold case posse.” Yesterday he released his findings, which—surprise!—point to forgery. The press release is here and the details of the investigation are here (both PDFs). I’ve been moved to undertake my own investigation, trying to suss out whether these files are, in fact, a prank or a parody, but I’m prepared to affirm that two PDFs, containing the phrases “Surprise Arizona Tea Party” and “cold case posse,” were released last night by the sheriff’s office in Maricopa County, Arizona.
Arpaio says, “I want to make this perfectly clear. I am not accusing the sitting President of the United States of committing a crime. But there remain a lot of questions which beg for answers and we intend to move forward with this investigation in pursuit of those answers, hopefully with the cooperation of all parties involved.” Elsewhere, the Sun-Times quotes him saying, “I’m not going after Obama. I’m just doing my job.”