Obama attorney: 'Mickey Mouse' could be on ballot

Mickey Mouse could be placed as a candidate on the New Jersey Democratic Party presidential primary ballot, an attorney representing Barack Obama argued in court to support her claim that state law does not require Obama to prove he is eligible.

At the hearing before New Jersey Administrative Law Judge Jeff S. Masin April 10, Hill maneuvered to avoid having to enter into evidence Obama's long-form birth certificate the White House released nearly a year ago as proof Obama was born in Hawaii.

WND previously reported that Hill repeatedly explained to Masin, "We do not believe the president's birth certificate is relevant to this case.

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Hill's Mickey Mouse comment came in an exchange in which Masin appeared to be lecturing plaintiff's attorney Mario Apuzzo that the authenticity of Obama's birth certificate could not be challenged at the hearing because the White House had not provided the birth certificate to the New Jersey secretary of state and Hill had not introduced the birth certificate into evidence at the hearing.

To make his point, Masin engaged in the following imaginary example:

If I said, theoretically, the law requires [the Obama birth certificate to be produced], and if all of a sudden, magically, a helicopter landed out here and somebody ran out and handed it – 'Here's the birth certificate' – now if you wanted to say here's the birth certificate, then if you wanted to say that birth certificate is a forgery and therefore can't be accepted, the evidence might be accepted.

In the exchange with the bench that followed, Hill pointed out that it was not the obligation of her client, Obama for America, the president's campaign organization, to present a birth certificate, but the burden "is on the objectors to prove Obama is not eligible under New Jersey statutes."

She further argued New Jersey statutes do not specifically require a birth certificate be produced to get a name placed on the state's presidential primary ballot.

"But if it's not necessary for the candidate [to prove eligibility to be on the New Jersey presidential primary ballot], then you could have Mickey Mouse, for say, as a candidate, and everybody could sign up. ...." Hill argued.

"And that's happened before," Masin interrupted.

The comment produced nervous laughter from some of the observers gathered in the hearing room.

Obama's lawyer fired from the case

In a telephone interview with WND, Apuzzo confirmed Angelo J. Genova, a partner and the co-founder of the law firm Genova Burns Giantomasi & Webster in New Jersey – as well as the boss of attorney Alexandra Hill – called him April 16 to complain that the firm had received death threats after video from the April 10 hearing had been broadcast on the Internet.

Apuzzo told Genova he had no knowledge of any death threats but that he was willing to put up an advisory on his website disapproving of such inappropriate and possibly illegal behavior.

Genova further explained to Apuzzo that Hill had been removed from the Obama eligibility case, and he would henceforth handle the legal representation in the Obama eligibility case personally.

Genova demanded that Apuzzo remove all videos of the April 10 hearing from the Internet, only to be informed by Apuzzo that he had not made any such videos and was not responsible for those currently available on the Internet for public view.

Controversy over Hill's arguments at the April 10 hearing began after various Internet posts erroneously reported that Hill stipulated during the hearing that the Obama long-form birth certificate was a forgery.

What precisely Hill had stipulated was that the birth certificate had never been presented by Obama's presidential campaign to the New Jersey secretary of state or to Judge Masin as evidence Obama was eligible to be president.

What was clear viewing the three-hour hearing was that Hill waged a battle throughout to prevent being forced to submit the Obama birth certificate into evidence.

By doing so, Hill was able to block Apuzzo's expert witness from testifying in person at the hearing that the Obama long-form birth certificate released by the White House was inherently unreliable because it was an electronic file that demonstrated electronic manipulation.

Videos approved by the court

WND has further confirmed from Apuzzo and various witnesses at the hearing that Masin held a pre-hearing conference in his chambers with Hill and Apuzzo.

At the pre-hearing conference, Masin discussed the various video cameras present to record the hearing and indicated he would allow the video cameras to be brought into court.

A video camera from Conservative News and Views, as well as video equipment for Dan Haggerty and Billy Bear, co-hosts of the Wednesday afternoon radio show "The Baer-Haggerty Offensive" on WNJC, AM 1360 in Philadelphia, were allowed into the court by a court officer after other spectators were seated.

The court officer instructed that videos within the courtroom needed to be placed on a tripod, a condition with which both Conservative News and Views as well as Haggerty-Baer were willing to comply.

During the hearing itself, Hill expressed no objection to the video cameras taping the session.

Apuzzo told WND he plans to appeal Masin's written opinion, also issued on April 10, in which Masin concluded that New Jersey law does not require Obama to produce any proof he is eligible to be president to be placed on the primary ballot.

The two-minute video posted on YouTube captures Hill's comment that "Mickey Mouse could be a candidate for president" on the New Jersey primary ballot.

The 17-second exchange posted on YouTube in which Hill argues the Obama birth certificate is "irrelevant" under New Jersey Law for placing a candidate on the New Jersey presidential primary ballot.

The entire three-hour hearing video recorded by Haggerty-Baer can be viewed on YouTube here, here and here.

State law allows the recording of public hearings.

The New Jersey Administrative Code, 1:1-14.1(a), provides, "All evidentiary hearings, proceedings on motions and other applications shall be conducted as public hearings unless otherwise provided by statute, rule or regulation, or on order of judge for good cause."

The NJAC further provides in 1:1-14.1(d), "All public hearings may be filmed, photographed and recorded, subject to reasonable restrictions established by the judge and to avoid disruption of the hearing process."

Read the preliminary findings of Sheriff Arpaio's Cold Case Posse investigation after six months investigating Obama's constitutional eligibility to serve as president in "A Question of Eligibility," co-authored by Jerome Corsi and Mike Zullo.

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Previous stories:

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Call to congressional action on eligibility

High court justice: Obama birth certificate fishy

Russian media expose Obama birth ‘forgery’

Media blackout on Obama eligibility near-total

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