By msnbc.com news services
PHOENIX ? Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Thursday unveiled preliminary results of an investigation, conducted by members of his volunteer task force, into the authenticity of President Barack Obama's birth certificate, a controversy that has been widely debunked but that remains alive for the so-called birther movement.
At a news conference, Arpaio, whose office is facing a federal inquiry?involving alleged racial profiling,?said the probe revealed that there was probable cause to believe Obama's long-form birth certificate released by the White House in April is a computer-generated forgery. He also said the selective service card completed by Obama in 1980 in Hawaii also was most likely a forgery.
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"We don't know who the perpetrators are of these documents," Arpaio said, although he said he doesn't think the president forged the documents.
On Thursday, Obama's campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt offered a light-hearted dismissal of Arpaio's probe ? he tweeted what he referred to as a "live link" to the sheriff's news conference, but instead provided a link to a snippet of the old conspiracy-theory based TV series, "The X-Files."
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio talks to reporters about the birth certificate investigation.
The sheriff said a forensic examination of the electronic document that the White House provided last year proves that it was not simply scanned?to create a computer file?but?rather?assembled from several pieces, East Valley Tribune.com reported.
Arpaio's probe comes amid a federal grand jury investigation into the sheriff's office on criminal abuse-of-power allegations since at least December 2009, focusing on the sheriff's anti-public corruption squad. Separately, the U.S. Justice Department has accused Arpaio's office of racially profiling Latinos, basing immigration enforcement on racially charged citizen complaints and punishing Hispanic jail inmates for speaking Spanish. Arpaio denies the allegations and said the investigation is politically motivated.
Earlier Thursday, the 79-year-old Republican sheriff defended his need to spearhead the investigation into Obama's birth certificate by saying?that nearly 250 people connected to a conservative Arizona Tea Party group requested one last summer.
"I'm not going after Obama," said Arpaio, who has criticized the president's administration for cutting off his federal immigration powers and conducting the civil rights investigation of his office. "I'm just doing my job."
Speculation about Obama's birthplace has swirled among conservatives for years. "Birthers" maintain that Obama is ineligible to hold the country's highest elected office because, they contend, he was born in Kenya, his father's homeland. Some contend Obama's birth certificate must be a fake.
Hawaii officials have repeatedly confirmed that Obama?was born there, meaning he's a native-born American, and Obama released a copy of his long-form birth certificate in April. Courts also have rebuffed lawsuits over the issue. Of late, the president's re-election campaign has poked fun at it, selling coffee cups with a picture of the president's birth record.
Some critics suggest Arpaio's aim is to divert attention from his own legal troubles while raising his political profile as he seeks a sixth term this year. The sheriff vehemently denies such strategies are in play.
Critics also have sought Arpaio's resignation over allegations that more than 400 sex-crimes cases over a three-year period ending in 2007?were either inadequately investigated or weren't investigated at all by the Sheriff's Office after the crimes were reported. The Sheriff's Office said the backlog was cleared up after the problem was brought to Arpaio's attention.
Arpaio has said he took deliberate steps to avoid the appearance that his investigation is politically motivated. Instead of using taxpayer money, the sheriff farmed it out to lawyers and retired police officers who are volunteers in a posse that examines cold cases for?him. Other posses assist deputies in duties that include providing free police protection at malls during the holiday season or transporting people to jail.
The sheriff remains popular among Republicans. GOP presidential candidates have courted his endorsement throughout the primary season. At last week's Republican presidential debate in Arizona, Arpaio won loud cheers. During a question about Arizona's border woes, former Sen. Rick Santorum said the government ought to give local police agencies the chance to enforce immigration law as Arpaio has.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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