Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Chief Investigator Mike Zullo say "nine points of forgery" have been found on President Barack Obama's birth certificate.
During a Thursday press conference, Arpaio and Zullo said their five-year-long investigation revealed new evidence including "forensic analysis showing the characters on the document were pieced together from secondary sources."
According to Zullo, the certificate released by the White House in 2011 appears to be a "created" document that sources an official Hawaiian birth certificate belonging to a Johana Ah'nee.
A video played during the press conference showed nine elements that were lifted and placed on the Obama certificate in "an apparent attempt to make it appear authentic."
"My concern was not where the president was born, but whether the document presented to the people was a fraud," Arpaio said of his office's investigation.
Zullo said the aim of their investigation was to "clear" Obama's birth certificate, but two forensic experts were 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," Zullo said. "But we had to follow the evidence. We let the evidence determine the direction of the investigation - it is what we always do in any legitimate investigation. This one was handled no differently."
