Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio addressed his 'Cold Case Posse' looking into President Barack Obama's birth certificate at an Arizona tea party meeting with "birther queen" Orly Taitz Tuesday night.
Taitz, who conservative outlet WorldNetDaily says flew in from California on short notice, talked for a few minutes about her claim that the president was not born in the United States. The audience applauded her during her speech, and several members stood up at the end.
"Thanks for your input. We're looking at this very closely," said Arpaio. "I can't tell you everything, but there could be a shock there somewhere that my guys came up with. I can't talk too much about it. It's in the process."
Arpaio said to Taitz, "There are a couple of things you and nobody else here knows anything about yet that could be a little bit exciting."
Arpaio, the sheriff for Phoenix and its environs, repeatedly declined to give specifics on the investigation. "I'm not going to wait forever," he said. "I want to get the report out."
Arpaio defended his 'Cold Case Posse' on local television in September. "I am the chief law enforcement officer, they asked me to look at that situation. I don't dump everything in the wastebasket. So I have my 'Cold Case Posse,' which I've had for five years. It's free. It doesn't cost a penny to the taxpayers. [It's] made up of ex-cops and some lawyers, so let them look at it."
Arpaio has gained national attention for his tough stance on immigration enforcement. He has undertaken many publicized raids in predominately Latino neighborhoods to sweep up undocumented immigrants. A federal grand jury has been investigating him since early 2010 for alleged abuses of power.
President Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1961. Obama's presidential campaign released a digitally-scanned birth certificate and the White House released the long-form document in April. Yet some still refuse to believe that the president was born in the United States.
In April Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) vetoed a bill that would have required presidential candidates to prove their citizenship using a birth certificate or a baptismal or circumcision certificate. "This bill is a distraction, and we just simply need to get on with the state's business," she said at the time.
