Evidence that the document presented to the American public by Barack Obama as his Hawaiian birth certificate is fake soon will be heading to members of Congress, and the difficult discussions over what crimes may have been committed and what should be done could begin soon.

The atmosphere in Washington will be different under Trump, who will be inaugurated Jan. 20, since he publicly questioned Obama's birth certificate in 2011. During this election season, he stated he now believes Obama was born in Hawaii.

But at a news conference Thursday, Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the only law enforcement officer to formally investigate the allegations of fraud, presented evidence that the image of the birth document posted by the White House was fraudulent.

One thing seems certain: The evidence will have to go elsewhere for action to be taken, since Arpaio, known as "America's toughest sheriff" and innovator of such jail amenities as pink underwear and surplus Army tents in the desert heat for jail inmates, is leaving office Jan. 1 after more than two decades serving Phoenix-area residents, who had asked him for the birth certificate investigation.

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His replacement already has stated, CBS News reported, that he "will cut off Arpaio's investigation into Obama's birth certificate."

Mike Zullo, Arpaio's lead investigator since 2011 on the birth certificate issue, told WND he wants to get the evidence to members of Congress for evaluation. It could support a Presidential Transparency Act, which would give secretaries of state across the nation the authority to investigate candidates with suspect qualifications.

"This is what we have learned. Every secretary of state is powerless to investigate a candidate," he told WND. "They have to take everything on face value."

That means a candidate whose qualifications are questioned cannot be reviewed by state secretaries of state, who run the elections

Zullo told WND that could be a very easy fix for the controversy that developed around Obama's document.

The issue is that the U.S. Constitution requires the president to be a "natural-born citizen" but does not define the term. Scholarly works cited by the Founders defined it as a citizen at birth, born in the country to two citizens of the country, or merely the offspring of two citizens of the country.

The birth certificate Obama displayed on the White House website as "proof positive" of his eligibility states he was born in Hawaii to an American mother and a Kenyan father.

Some immediately pointed out alleged anomalies, questioning its validity, while others argued it also could prove his ineligibility because his father was not a citizen. Some of the lawsuits over the issue argued Obama was a dual citizen at birth through his father, contending the framers of the Constitution excluded dual citizens from qualifying as natural born citizens.

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Eventually, just as the No. 1 bestseller "Where's The Birth Certificate?" was combining with a challenge at that time from billionaire businessman Donald Trump to force Obama's hand, Obama held a White House news conference to release a copy of his birth certificate.

Now, what has been described as the only official law enforcement investigation ever done into the Obama birth certificate has concluded it is "not authentic."

See a video prepared by the investigators and released at a news conference on Thursday:

Jerome Corsi, Ph.D., WND senior staff writer and author of "Where's the Birth Certificate?" was credited by sheriff's officials with contributing to the investigation.

Corsi said Zullo and Arpaio "have done the United States a heroic service demonstrating by forensic analysis that the long form birth certificate produced in a White House news conference on April 27, 2011, as Barack Obama's authentic birth certificate is a forgery."

"The nine points of forgery between the Johanna Ah'nee birth certificate and Obama's [long-form birth certificate] prove convincingly that the Ah'nee birth certificate was the source document from which the Obama LFBC was created."

Corsi said Arpaio's five-year effort "vindicates the extensive research WND conducted over years to bring this issue to the attention of the American public."

The sheriff's video said there were nine images on the Obama birth certificate that appear to be identical to, and copied from, another birth certificate issued in Hawaii just days after his birth.

That certificate belongs to Johanna Ah'nee.

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The copied items include the word "Honolulu," "Oahu" twice, three different Xs and two time stamps. The identical nature of the Xs raised serious questions since they would have been applied to original documents by moving a typewriter carriage and roller at the time.

Explained the investigator on the video:

Doesn't it just make sense that Alvin Onaka's stamp and the April 25th date stamp were lifted from someplace also? Ask yourself this question. If anyone presented you with a document in your life that was this suspect would you readily accept it or would you begin an intense vetting, be it a house title, a car title, a piece of currency, anything? Would you accept something this suspect if presented to you in your life? If you answered no, then ask yourself a second question, don't the American people have a right to vet the documents that they are presented by public officials.

One of the experts who assisted in the investigation was Reed Hayes, a court-qualified handwriting and document examiner, who runs a business in Hawaii. He is on the board of the Scientific Association of Forensic Examiners and has been in business nearly 40 years.

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Forlabs, an Italian company that specializes in extracting information from multimedia files, also produced the results.

"We had two experts from two countries in separate disciplines of forensics that came to one conclusion: Barack Obama's long form birth certificate it not authentic," the report said.

During the news conference, Zullo quoted from the investigation by Hayes: "The (nail in the coffin) that proves that Certificate of Live Birth is inauthentic is the exact lineup of numerous entries on both [certificates]."

He said the experts likened the evidence to being as reliable as a fingerprint.

During his investigation, Zullo said he encountered unusual opposition from officials who would normally be expected to cooperate with investigators, such as hospital officials, state officials, and others in Hawaii.

He said that just increased his suspicions.

Arpaio said he, like Zullo, at the outset was ready to verify the document as valid and drop the issue.

"Five years ago I said one thing, show us the microfiche, the birth certificate and we'll all go home," he said.

But he couldn't because of the evidence.

He confirmed plans to turn the results over to the federal government and Congress.

"Maybe some members of Congress will hold some hearings, open to the public regarding this matter. … If they can hold hearings … on underinflated footballs, why can't you hold one on this?" he said. "Look at our evidence, just look at it."

He said at the news conference that he was withholding some "sensitive" information so that the next step could be taken.

But he called it a "fake, fake birth certificate."

The evidence

The sheriff's office concluded: "It is the opinion of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office that the birth certificate on your right, belonging to Johanna Ah'nee, was in fact used as a source document in the digital creation of Barack Obama's long form birth certificate."

The video notes nine points of "forgery."

"What are the odds that two stamps in two separate boxes stamped by hand … days apart would have the exact same angle?" the investigators ask.

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"It should be pointed out these stamps were looked at by two separate document examiners in two forensic disciplines on two continents," the video explains.

WND reported when the news conference was announced how the issue had badgered Obama from before his first inauguration until well into his second term. Now, apparently, it's raining on his legacy.

WND reported Obama explained he decided to release it because the Internet "chatter" was becoming a "distraction."

At the time, the Washington Times described Obama as "visibly frustrated" and noted that a recent CBS News-New York Times poll showed 45 percent of registered Republican voters believe Obama was not born in the U.S.

But while the issue became known in liberal and left-leaning circles as the biggest "conspiracy" theory of all time, some document experts questioned the validity of the birth certificate Obama released. The question was posed, unsuccessfully, to the U.S. Supreme Court many times.

In 2012, Arpaio held a news conference that concluded there was probable cause to believe the document Obama released as an official government document is a computer-generated forgery.

Arapaio, known for his strict enforcement of immigration laws, commissioned the investigative team after local citizens presented him with a petition expressing concern that Obama might not be eligible for Arizona's presidential ballot.

The sheriff even deputized preacher, pastor, author, radio host and former law enforcement officer Carl Gallups of the PPSIMMONS blog in his pursuit of the truth.

"This investigation and its forensic conclusions in my opinion will vindicate a lot of people. That vindication includes the sheriff and his investigator of course but also president-elect Donald Trump. It also vindicates millions of Americans who dared to ask questions about this nefarious birth certificate and have been lampooned and marginalized by certain members of the press and other operatives for doing so. The investigation also vindicates those in the press who did have the guts to speak to this and to spend time investigating it, like WND," Gallups said.

"I have a feeling that this matter is not over. Not by a long shot. I cannot imagine that authorized federal authorities will now not step in and investigate this matter to its conclusion."

Investigators at that time they believed forgers committed two crimes. First, they said it appeared the White House fraudulently created a forgery that it characterized as an officially produced governmental birth record. Second, the White House fraudulently presented to the residents of Maricopa County and to the American public at large a forgery represented as "proof positive" of President Obama's authentic 1961 Hawaii long-form birth certificate.

The investigators also said they had developed credible evidence that Obama's Selective Service card was a forgery, based on an examination of the postal date stamp on the document. Also, records of Immigration and Naturalization Service cards filled out by passengers arriving on international flights originating outside the United States in the month of August 1961, examined at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., were missing records for the week of President Obama’s birth.

Arpaio said then a "continuing investigation" was needed, and his investigators set to work.

'Preposterous notion'

WND reported in 2015 when the issue was raised in a CNN interview in which anchor Jake Tapper excoriated Arpaio for questioning Obama's document.

See the interview:

On CNN's "The Lead," Tapper said, "You've trafficked in this rather preposterous notion that Obama was not born in the United States and that he may have forged his birth certificate that he released."

He continued, "Why would you risk your credibility on issues you care about – like illegal immigration, like law enforcement – by getting involved in this nonsense?"

"What do you mean 'risk'?" Arpaio asked. "I'm the chief law enforcement officer elected by the people. I have a right to investigate and speak out. I'm not talking about where he came from. I don't care where he came from. We're working on a fraudulent, forged government document. That's what we are doing."

Tapper interjected, "You're maintaining that the birth certificate that the president of the United States revealed and released to the public, you're maintaining that that is fraudulent?"

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"That's right," Arpaio responded.

The CNN host asked, "Is there anyone, any credible law enforcement person outside of you and your organization and your contractors, who has any agreement with you on this?"

"No, they haven't looked at it," Arpaio said. "What, are you kidding? I'm probably the only law enforcement official who has looked into it. Nobody looks into it. They shy away from it."

Once again, a flustered Tapper interrupted: "Because the president was born in Hawaii."

"I don't care where he was born," Arpaio replied. "I'm talking about a fraudulent government document, a birth certificate. That's all I'm concerned with. That's a violation of the law."

Listen to "Aaron Klein Radio" clip of Joe Arpaio discussing Obama's birth certificate:

Zullo has noted that Hayes, a document examiner who has served as expert witness for Seattle law firm Perkins Coie – the firm that flew an attorney to Honolulu to personally deliver two paper copies of the birth certificate to the White House – has concluded in a signed affidavit that the document posted on the White House website is "entirely fabricated."

Also, at the time Obama was born, only a short time after Hawaii was admitted as a state, there were a number of ways a Hawaiian birth certificate could have been obtained without the person having been born in Hawaii.

Americans skeptical

Six years into Obama's administration, WND reported a poll revealed nearly one-quarter of American adults didn't even believe he's a U.S. citizen, let alone a "natural-born citizen," and another 17 percent were unsure.

Rasmussen Reports found 41 percent of Republicans believed Obama is not an American citizen, a belief shared by 21 percent of those who are unaffiliated and 11 percent of Democrats.

"Just over 20 percent of Republicans and unaffiliated adults also are not sure, but only 7 percent of those in the president's party share that doubt," the polling organization said in a report titled "Have We Got A Conspiracy for You – 9/11? JFK? Obama's Citizenship?"

Overall, 23 percent said the theory that Obama is not an American citizen is true, and another 17 percent said they weren't sure. Sixty percent reject the theory as false.

Ironically, in recent months it's been, Obama, his wife Michelle, Secretary of State John Kerry and even his former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, who have raised the issue over and over.

It was during an appearance in Nairobi, Secretary of State John Kerry said he thanked the Kenyan president for giving America "a president of the United States" – a comment alluding to the contested issue of where Obama was born.

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Kerry told Kenya's foreign minister he had a conversation with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta concerning the Olympic Games in Rio and President Obama's birthplace:

I had the pleasure of beginning that meeting [with Kenyatta], as I want to begin this press conference this afternoon, by congratulating Kenya on something no nation's athletes have ever before accomplished, and that is to win both the men's and the women's marathon races at the Olympic Games. Absolutely extraordinary. When I mentioned that to President Kenyatta, he promptly said to me, "Well, we also had a hand in helping you win a silver because the person who won came from Kenya." (Laughter.) "And I said, "Actually, Mr. President, you did better than a silver and a gold. You gave us a president of the United States." (Laughter.) So you can see we had a very friendly and positive beginning to the conversation.

Watch the video of Kerry's remarks:

Obama himself raised the question at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, during an address in which he urged Americans to elect Clinton.

"You know, there's been a lot of talk in this campaign about what America's lost – people who tell us that our way of life is being undermined by pernicious changes and dark forces beyond our control," Obama said. "They tell voters there's a 'real America' out there that must be restored. This isn't an idea that started with Donald Trump. It's been peddled by politicians for a long time – probably from the start of our Republic.

"And it's got me thinking about the story I told you 12 years ago tonight, about my Kansas grandparents and the things they taught me when I was growing up. They came from the heartland; their ancestors began settling there about 200 years ago. I don't know if they had their birth certificates, but they were there."

The mention of "birth certificates," which prompted laughter and cheers from the crowd, was a deviation from the president's prepared remarks, and comes just two nights after his wife, first lady Michelle Obama, brought up the issue of her husband's citizenship and faith during her speech to the DNC.

At that time, Michelle Obama said one of her jobs in the White House was to teach her daughters "to ignore those who question their father's citizenship or faith."

She was referencing the challenges to her husband's constitutional qualification for office as a "natural born citizen."

Hillary Clinton "went birther" during a campaign appearance in Charlotte, North Carolina when she tweeted, "Someone who has never forgotten where he came from. And Donald, if you're out there tweeting: It's Hawaii." –Hillary on @POTUS

"Someone who has never forgotten where he came from. And Donald, if you’re out there tweeting: It’s Hawaii." — Hillary on @POTUS — Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 5, 2016

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Among the many records the Obama camp has refused to release are the marriage license of his father (Barack Sr.) and mother (Stanley Ann Dunham), name-change records (Barry Soetero to Barack Hussein Obama), adoption records, records of his and his mother's repatriation as U.S. citizens from Indonesia, baptism records, Noelani Elementary School (Hawaii) records, Punahou School financial aid or school records, Occidental College financial aid records, Harvard Law School records, Columbia senior thesis, Columbia College records, record with Illinois State Bar Association, files from his terms as an Illinois state senator, his law client list, medical records and passport records.

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