The following post raises some questions based upon facts observed in reviewing this story. This blog is not intended to be opinion-driven, but will label posts as "commentary" when necessary.:
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is proclaiming loud and often that taxpayers funds are not being used to investigate the birth certificate of President Barack Obama. However, there is no question that county resources are being used to publicize the sheriff and his findings.
He set up the Cold Case Posse, which is a registered 501(c)(3) and does collect donations. It reportedly absorbed all the costs of the investigation.
But, he then proceeded to use his County offices to release the report, issue a news release about the report, use his official Twitter account to promote the report, and so on. The press conference was promoted by World Net Daily and was used to collect monies by them. The news release promotes videos shown at the news conference that were posted on YouTube by a private individual(s) billed as "TeaPartyPowerHour".
The lines are blurry, but walking along such lines certainly raises questions. Questions about the appropriateness of spending any public resources promoting an investigation into which Maricopa County's jurisdiction is limited, to say the least. Questions about whether there is a tit for tat element, or a bargaining chip element to this, or an implied threat element to this. Questions about whether the sheriff now has an obligation to try to pursue charges now that he has found "probable cause" that there is a forgery and that someone or someones in the White House lied last April.
We welcome your comments about this post. Or, if you have something unrelated on your mind, please e-mail to info-at-arizonaspolitics-dot-com, or call 602-799-7025. Thanks.
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