Gary Kreep (photo Ryan J. Reilly).

A panel called “Saving Freedom and Due Process from Oppressive Justice Department” devolved into a forum for the so-called “birther” movement on Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

Two panelists dropped out rather than appear alongside a leader in the “birther” movement, which believes that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation.

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and Scott Bullock of the Institute for Justice both dropped out of the CPAC forum because of the presence of Gary Kreep, according to the knowledgeable person, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“Unfortunately Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has had to decline today for a variety of different reasons, and because it is that season in Washington, D.C., Scott Bullock who is my good friend, has had a family emergency unfortunately he’s just had to rush back out, so I apologize for that as well,” said Andrew Langer of the Institute for Liberty, who was moderating the panel.

Kreep, director of the United States Justice Foundation, is behind a birther infomercial and has filed lawsuits demanding an original copy of Obama’s birth certificate. For viewers who donate $30, Kreep will send a fax in their name to the 50 state attorneys general and Attorney General Eric Holder that demands that Obama produce his “real” birth certificate.

“People like [original "birther" lawyer] Phil Berg and I, we’re not doing this for the fun of it, we’re not getting paid. I don’t get paid a penny for this, I do it because the people of the United States have a right to know if this guy is a natural born citizen,” Kreep told Main Justice. “You can say I’m nuts, you can say I’m wacko, you can say whatever you want, but why doesn’t he just show the birth certificate, that’s what the press should be asking.”

“There’s a legal issue as to why the Department of Justice is defending Mr. Obama in these cases,” said Kreep. A spokesman for Cuccinelli denied in a statement to the Washington Post that the Virginia official had objected to appearing with Kreep.

Video of the panel is available below.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger West of the Central District of California told Stephanie Mencimer of Mother Jones magazine that defending the government from a lawsuit brought by California lawyer/dentist Orly Taitz, a leader in the “birther” movement that believes President Barack Obama was born in another county, has not taken much of his time.

According to Mother Jones:

The case has dragged on for more than a year, mostly because Taitz, a graduate of an online, unaccredited law school, failed to serve the defendants. Judge David O. Carter dismissed the suit in October for a host of reasons, but Taitz has appealed. Yet West says that far from bleeding his office, Taitz and her co-counsel Gary Kreep have assembled such a weak case that he hasn’t had to spend much time on it. “I filed one motion that didn’t take too long, we’ve had two hearings and that’s it,” he says. “It’s not like we’ve devoted some sort of task force to this.”

And, according to Mother Jones, Army Major Rebecca Ausprung, who handled two of the birther cases against the Department of the Army that disputed Obama’s authority as commander in chief, says she spent a few hours drafting motions and doing research. “The monetary cost to the government in defending these two cases was extremely minimal,” she says.

And finally, in another case, dismissed by the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, the Federal Election Commission was invited to submit a bill for its expenses in dealing with the case. The bill was $20.40.