"I ... have seen the original vital records maintained on file by the Hawaii State Department of Health verifying Barack Hussein Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born American citizen," she said in a brief statement. "I have nothing further to add to this statement or my original statement issued in October 2008 over eight months ago."Fukino says the original records themselves verify that Obama was born in Hawaii. The word verify means "to prove to be true" or "to ascertain the correctness of." It's pretty clear to me what she meant.
Regarding Fukino's statement, Okubo said:
The statement was reviewed and approved by our Attorney General Mark Bennett. I am unable to provide further comment.I also have to disagree that the AG "refused to corroborate" Fukino's statement. First, the Post & Email presented their questions to the Deputy AG, Jill Nagamine, and not to the AG, Mark Bennett. Second, they did not explicitly ask the AG's office to corroborate Fukino's statement. The P&E asked two, very specific, leading questions, neither of which said anything about corroborating a statement.
I am seeking some information in response to 2 questions I have. Please understand that your response or non-response will be quoted by our paper.The Post & Email is full of bunk. If they wanted a confirmation, they should have asked for one. The Deputy AG refused to answer those two specific questions. A conflict of interest does not necessarily indicate a disagreement. There may be legal reasons that she can't answer the questions. And since the original statement said Fukino had nothing futher to add, I wouldn't expect any further comment from the State of Hawaii. Whatever the reason, one cannot draw a conclusion that the AG's office refused to corroborate anything. What they refused to do was answer the reporters questions.Q. 1: Does the Director of the Hawaii Department of Health have any statutory duty or authority to defin he citizenship status of anyone whose vital record(s) are kept by that department?
Q.2: According to the legal references employed by your office, what is the defition of a “natural-born citizen” of the United States of America?
I put my question to the Deputy Attorney General to avoid putting the Attorney General in a situation of a conflict of interest, if he in fact, did, as Dr. Fukino claims, advise her regarding her July statement.
Nagamine, in response, asserted that any answer to such questions given by her office would represent a conflict interest for her office.
And that is an explicit admission that Dr. Fukino had no statutory authority nor duty to make such a statement, and that the Attorney General’s office will not stand behind Fukino’s claim that Obama is a “natural-born American citizen."
Given that Obama’s birth certificate is amended the State of Hawaii cannot say where Obama was born. They can only say what the BC CLAIMS about his birth - which is exactly what Fukino said.
The legal definition of “verify”, from http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:lqkbirWjp9kJ:legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/verify+legal+definition+of+%22verify%22&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us , is “To make certain, to substantiate, or to confirm by formal oath, affirmation, or Affidavit”
Fukino is not verifying anything, nor does she say she verified anything. She says the vital records (plural) verify. And they could be as wrong as sin and still “verify” according to the legal definition. All Fukino is saying is that they have a sworn statement somewhere claiming that Obama was born in Hawaii.
They could have a DOZEN sworn statements and that amended BC still doesn’t mean a thing legally unless and until it is presented as evidence to a judicial or administrative person or body and THAT BODY verifies - signs their name in testimony to the truthfulness of - the probative value of the amended birth certificate.
You’re reading this as if Fukino herself was VERIFYING (swearing to the truthfulness of) Obama’s alleged Hawaii birth. Read it carefully. She says the RECORDS verify - not that she verifies, or that the State of Hawaii verifies. All her statement means is that they have sworn statements claiming Obama was born in Hawaii.
If those statements had been made in proper time then the State of Hawaii would vouch for the truthfulness of the claims by calling them prima facie evidence. Because they weren’t made in proper time, the State of Hawaii can only acknowledge, without comment, that the sworn claims exist. For Fukino to say anything more than that would be a violation of HRS 338-17.
Consider, for instance, the difference if she had said, “I have seen the original vital records and verify that Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural born citizen.”
Totally different statement, yet that is what people think that she said.
What legal reasons would prevent the AG's office from answering questions about Obama's citizenship unless they have no authority (like Fukino) to make statements about anyone's citizenship??