Arpaio: Perjury?

Stephen Lemons of the Phoenix New Times used the “p” word in his article yesterday, “Judge Snow Rips the Lid Off an MCSO Riddled With Corruption, Confirming My Reporting in the Process.”

Lemons reported last June that Arpaio was paying a confidential informant big bucks to investigate an alleged conspiracy involving the Justice Department and federal judge G. Murray Snow. In testimony last week Sheriff Arpaio and Chief Deputy Sheridan confirmed the payments and the investigation. Sheridan further admitted that they got nothing useful from the informant, Dennis Montgomery, and that Montgomery was just stringing them along.

What Arpaio and Sheridan said in court was that he was investigating an allegation that the CIA had accessed 50,000 individual bank records in Maricopa County and that there was some wrongdoing involving the Justice Department and federal judges, but that Judge Snow’s inclusion in the investigation was incidental. So was the investigation of Snow central or tangential—targeted or coincidental? Lemons wrote:

My information always has been that Arpaio was up to his old tricks, attempting to conflict the judge, find dirt on him, and retaliate for adverse rulings.

A second point of conflict between Arpaio’s testimony and Lemon’s information is about who investigated the Judge’s wife. According to testimony, Arpaio attorney Tim Casey hired the investigator. Casey issued a statement that seems to contradict that. Lemons reported that the County Attorney’s Office was somehow involved.

So far Lemons has proven to be the more reliable source for what’s going on. I hope we’ll know a lot more when court hearings resume next June.

See also:

• Allegation: Sheriff Arpaio lied under oath

Former judge says: Joe Arpaio is Domestic enemy

Universe-shattering investigation revealed in court testimony Friday

It was somewhat of an anticlimax when Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan revealed in federal court Friday details of the “universe shattering” investigation Mike Zullo hinted about a year and a half ago. We already knew much of the story. Let’s view the facts chronologically.

Mike Zullo was the one who exposed the universe-shattering investigation in November, 2013. Carl Gallups tweeted:

BREAKING! BREAKING! ANNOUNCED TODAY - Zullo: We have universe-shattering information! PLUS: Arpaio is fully... http://t.co/MSy3DJMHDd

— PPSIMMONS (@PPSIMMONS) November 23, 2013

Zullo spoke to the Surprise Arizona Tea Party Patriots about that time. Sharon Rondeau interviewed an attendee:

Zullo “said that the investigation that they started ‘turned very dark…’

We can place a proximate time on the start of the investigation from a confidential informant inside the Sheriff’s Office. Stephen Lemons of the Phoenix New Times newspaper wrote (in June 2014) that he had discovered:

My sources -- one of whom is a former detective with the MCSO's Special Investigations Division and is well-acquainted with SID and those in it -- say Anglin and Mackiewicz were involved in an odd investigation dating back to October 2013.

Amazing: Mike Zullo now on the Court's RADAR

Mike Zullo

We never expected the Zullo inquisition, but Mike Zullo is now tied up with Joe Arpaio’s contempt proceeding before federal judge G. Murray Snow in Phoenix.

Mike Zullo and two Maricopa County deputies traveled to Seattle to meet with a known con man, Dennis Montgomery. Arpaio admitted in court yesterday that Montgomery was to supply information on federal judges, including Judge Snow. Snow examined Arpaio closely yesterday, with a copy of the Stephen Lemons article from June of last year in hand, exposing the trip. Judge Snow ordered that the Sheriff’s Office and the Cold Case Posse not destroy any records relating to communications with Montgomery.

Zullo, happy to give affidavits in out of state cases, blew off subpoenas from Orly Taitz in birther lawsuits. It is an Obot’s web dream to see Zullo testify under oath. Will he say that public funds went to a con man to investigate the judge in Arpaio’s case, or will he say that the money was funding the Cold Case Posse’s “universe shattering” investigation of Barack Obama’s birth certificate?

Explosive: Arpaio Admits Awful Accusation

Day 3 of Arpaio contempt hearing

Arpaio critics have known for some time that Sheriff Joe Arpaio was involved with a Seattle con man named Dennis Montgomery. He sent two deputies plus Mike Zullo to Washington State to meet Montgomery, reports of payments in excess of $100,000 plus $50,000 in computer equipment have appeared, and there was also a meeting between Arpaio and a Montgomery associate in Phoenix. Phoenix New Times reporter Stephen Lemons spilled the beans from a confidential source early last June.

I also believe that the "universe-shattering" reveal from Mike Zullo and the Cold Case Posse was also based on the Montgomery information, explaining why it was very suddenly hushed up when Montgomery's identity and past history became public.

Despite third-party denials, Sheriff Arpaio admitted in court today that he did indeed pay Montgomery for information on Judge Snow, and that he had paid a private investigator to dig up information on the judge's wife. Phoenix New Times article in hand, Judge Snow grilled Arpaio about all of this. This comes on the heels of a negative barrage of publicity in the local news media.

By way of explanation of why he deliberately ordered staff not to implement the court's orders, Arpaio said that it "slipped through the cracks."

Read more at KPHO:

• Arpaio admits to hiring private agents to investigate judge's wife
• 'Meeker' Arpaio testifies a 2nd day in racial-profiling case
• Arpaio shifts blame over disobeying court order
• Arpaio attorney quits; top deputy turns on boss
• Sheriff Joe Arpaio in court over profiling case
• AZ Sheriff Joe Arpaio faces contempt hearing in profiling case

Read more at the Phoenix New Times:

• Noose Tightens Around Arpaio's Neck as He Channels Ronnie Reagan in Day Two of Contempt Trial

Shocker: Fundamentalist law school publishes birther paper

Regent University, the legacy of TV evangelist and former presidential candidate Pat Robertson, has published a remarkable paper in its Law Review. The paper by John Ira Jones IV is titled: "Natural Born Shenanigans: How the Birther Movement Exacerbated Confusion Over the Constitution's Natural Born Citizen Requirement".

The thesis of the paper is that inept birther lawsuits have poisoned the well for a legitimate consideration of the eligibility of Barack Obama to be president of the United States and that Barack Obama is actually not eligible. The inept birther litigants enumerated in the paper include:

• Philip Berg, attorney (Berg v. Obama and other cases)
• Orly Taitz, attorney (Keyes v. Bowen and other cases)
• Christopher Earl Strunk pro se (Strunk v. NY Board of Elections, and other cases)

He fails to list a some other losing birther litigants, all represented by attorney Mario Apuzzo and rather he uses Apuzzo as one of his sources, and thereby turns what might have been an interesting subject into a farce. Jones embraces the same junk birther theories promoted across the Internet by Apuzzo, and rejected by at least 11 courts (and on appeal) just since 2008.

Jones selects only the sources that help his thesis (that Obama is ineligible) ignoring the flood of material clearly pointing in the other way. And in fact, Jones says nothing that he couldn't have gotten and probably did get from a birther web site. He relegates the elephant in the room regarding Vattel's Law of Nations translation to a footnote, and in the footnote waves the problem away. Either Jones is being dishonest with his sources, or he did no independent research, relying only on birther predigested sources.

Regent University is located in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Federal district judge Gibney in Virginia said in the case of Tisdale v. Obama:

It is well settled that those born in the United States are considered natural born citizens.

Nevertheless, this one law student didn't get the memo, and his faculty adviser did a shoddy job in allowing this article's publication.

Universe shattering: Arpaio faces contempt charges

Arpaio to face Judge

It's a dangerous day for Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who will have to explain under oath why he shouldn't be held in contempt of court for a willful violation of the Court's order to end racial profiling and to take remedial action to prevent it from happening again. His contempt hearing starts today, scheduled to run for 4 days.

In private Maricopa County Sheriffs Office staff ridiculed the court order in the Melendres v. Arpaio lawsuit. Sheriff Joe has already admitted to being in contempt, offering $350,000 in taxpayer money in restitution (and $100,000 from himself and Deputy Sheridan).

Will the slippery Arpaio escape with a slap in the wrist, or will Federal Judge Snow throw the book at him, even possibly referring Arpaio for criminal prosecution and imprisonment? Perhaps Arpaio will resign, bringing down the tissue of legitimacy he gave the Cold Case Posse and its politically-motivated investigation into President Obama's public documents.

Stay tuned for the story that Birther Report is afraid to cover.

Update:

Judge Snow Judge Snow was not happy with the continued delays in defense providing documentation to plaintiffs. Maricopa County has now been added as a party to the lawsuit. Hearing will be continued to June 16-19 with possible supplemental hearings between April 24 and June 16.

Anti-Arpaio protest outside courtroom