{"id":21869,"date":"2004-03-08T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T07:10:33","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T07:10:33","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T07:10:33","slug":"mark_levin_on_hannity_colmes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2004\/03\/08\/mark_levin_on_hannity_colmes\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Levin on Hannity & Colmes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BEGIN TRANSCRIPT<\/strong><\/line>COLMES:<\/strong> Well, it\u2019s been months since radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh admitted and sought treatment for his addiction to the pain killer oxycontin. Prosecutors haven\u2019t charged him with any crimes yet, but now they\u2019re facing scrutiny for their tactics.<\/line>The Landmark Legal Foundation is asking the Florida Bar to investigate the Palm Beach County state attorney and his chief assistant for releasing letters between their office and Limbaugh\u2019s attorneys.<\/line>Have prosecutors unfairly targeted the radio legend?<\/line>Joining us now, Mark Levin, the president of the Landmark Legal Foundation. <\/line>Mark, good to have you back on the show. Welcome back.<\/line>MARK LEVIN, PRESIDENT, LANDMARK LEGAL FOUNDATION:<\/strong> My pleasure, thank you.<\/line>COLMES: <\/strong>How are you doing?<\/line>Well, the Palm Beach County state attorney\u2019s assistant, Kevin Selvig, has said there should be no controversy because Rush Limbaugh\u2019s radio network mentioned a possible settlement before any letters were released.<\/line>Is that an accurate statement, a fair statement?<\/line>LEVIN:<\/strong> No. The accurate statement is that they created a false record. They actually created a memorandum to the file which explicitly misstated what they were told by the Florida Bar and the attorney general\u2019s office, as a cover for releasing confidential communications.<\/line>That\u2019s what they did. That\u2019s why we filed the ethics complaint, and that\u2019s why they\u2019re currently under investigation.<\/line>COLMES:<\/strong> Do you think this was politically motivated?<\/line>LEVIN:<\/strong> Well, it certainly wasn\u2019t motivated by justice or reasonable thinking, so yes, it\u2019s a partisan witch-hunt. They\u2019re trying to smear Rush. They\u2019re trying to silence him. This is a very serious First Amendment issue.<\/line>You know, there is a Democrat state senator and a Democrat Florida judge, both of whom got addicted to pain killers, both of whom went into rehabilitation, both of whom were applauded as courageous. And off they go.<\/line>Rush Limbaugh, they leak false information about money laundering investigations. That was a lie. About part of a drug ring. That was a lie. And now this doctor shopping, which is also a lie.<\/line>COLMES:<\/strong> OK. The woman you mentioned, the state senator, was Mandy Dawson, a Democrat from Fort Lauderdale. She was charged 18 months ago with a felony. She got treatment, and the charge was dismissed. But she was arrested.<\/line>And the assistant state attorney Paul Driver says he\u2019s a conservative and a Rush Limbaugh fan.<\/line>LEVIN:<\/strong> I thought he said he was a Republican and a Rush Limbaugh fan.<\/line>COLMES:<\/strong> He could be both.<\/line>LEVIN:<\/strong> Well, that\u2019s possible. I\u2019m telling you the facts. I don\u2019t care if he\u2019s a Republican, an independent or a communist. The bottom line is this.<\/line>She was not technically charged with a crime. The bottom line is, I wasn\u2019t aware that she was indicted. I wasn\u2019t aware that she was arraigned. But even so, the fact of the matter is, she was patted on the back and off she goes.<\/line>There weren\u2019t leaks about her money — let me add this — there weren\u2019t leaks about money laundering or drug rings or any of the smear tactics that this office is using, Palm Beach County prosecutor now.<\/line>HANNITY:<\/strong> And by the way, welcome back, my friend. It\u2019s been a long time since we\u2019ve had you on the program. Let me start with this…<\/line>LEVIN:<\/strong> I wanted to wait until I gained 25 pounds and lost the rest of my hair.<\/line>HANNITY:<\/strong> You look great.<\/line>I want to talk about the Palm Beach County prosecutor, Barry what\u2019s his name, Krischer? He\u2019s a Democrat, first of all. He\u2019s up for reelection, correct?<\/line>LEVIN: <\/strong>That\u2019s correct.<\/line>HANNITY:<\/strong> The next question I want to ask about him, and I want to go to this particular judge who apparently, there are published report about an addiction, an eight-year addiction. His name is Jonathan Schwartz, Judge Schwartz. He\u2019s a Democrat also?<\/line>LEVIN:<\/strong> That\u2019s correct.<\/line>HANNITY: <\/strong>And this is the same county?<\/line>LEVIN:<\/strong> It\u2019s the same county.<\/line>HANNITY:<\/strong> Same problem?<\/line>LEVIN:<\/strong> And understand — same problem. And understand, this is a judge, not a talk-show host, a judge. And he was given actually a couple of opportunities to clean up.<\/line><\/p>\n

HANNITY:<\/strong> And voluntarily, and then when he cleaned up, he was praised by the community. There was no prosecution, no leaks. His doctor\u2019s office was not invaded the way they did to Rush Limbaugh\u2019s doctor\u2019s office.<\/line>So then one has got to conclude here that the only reason this is happening, this is selected prosecution and a political witch-hunt because this Democratic prosecutor doesn\u2019t like Rush\u2019s views. No?<\/line>LEVIN:<\/strong> Well, what else can explain it, because for 10 months they knew Rush was addicted to pain killers? They only acted after the story was sold to the “National Enquirer” by individuals who were given immunity, pushers or dealers who were given immunity by this prosecutor by this prosecutor.<\/line>This prosecutor is a bumbler. This prosecutor gives immunity to the distributors and is going after the person who\u2019s gotten rehabilitation. It\u2019s supposed to work the other way last time I checked.<\/line>HANNITY: <\/strong>But what\u2019s interesting about this, too, is first the allegations that were put forward in the media, Rush\u2019s money — laundering money because he took money out of his own bank account, which was fairly interesting to me. I thought we were allowed to take money out of our own bank account.<\/line>The second thing was, he\u2019s part of a drug ring. That went away. They came up with the idea of doctor shopping. And then they went to his doctor\u2019s offices and took his private personal medical records, right?<\/line>LEVIN: <\/strong>They got search warrants, which are typically reserved for gathering information that might disappear.<\/line>We\u2019re talking about doctors who are reputable. We\u2019re talking about, rather than subpoenaing them so Rush\u2019s lawyer, Mr. Black, can get into court and fight and raise a constitutional issues, actually getting search warrants and seizing them.<\/line>And since then, the circuit court has ordered the trial court to take those records away from the prosecutor, put them under seal. That issue is on appeal.<\/line>And by the way, Rush\u2019s prescriptions were then put on a public web site for the whole world to see every television station carried them.<\/line>COLMES:<\/strong> We…<\/line>LEVIN:<\/strong> This is what I mean by smear tactics.<\/line>COLMES: <\/strong>We take quick break. More on the other side of the break.<\/line>(COMMERCIAL BREAK)<\/line>HANNITY: <\/strong>We continue now with the great one, Mark Levin, the president of the Landmark Legal Foundation, looking into the Rush Limbaugh case.<\/line>I want to ask you, Mark, specifically here, you know I have a radio talk show.<\/line>LEVIN: <\/strong>Right.<\/line>HANNITY: <\/strong>And we live and die by our sponsors here. There is a certain amount of evidence that — I\u2019m coming to a conclusion here — the fact that they are unwilling to resolve this, the fact that prosecutors have tried to silence Rush.<\/line>They plant these stories in the media. They release the private communications with his attorney and the prosecutors, which never happens that I have heard of.<\/line>It seems like this is all about, now, hurting Rush Limbaugh and punishing him politically.<\/line>LEVIN: <\/strong>Yes.<\/line>HANNITY:<\/strong> What can you do to stop this?<\/line>LEVIN: <\/strong>Now I understand they don\u2019t just release these confidential communications. They solicit advice from the Florida Bar and the top ethics officer, the attorney general\u2019s office, a nonpartisan lady.<\/line>They take that information. They put only part of it in a memorandum to the record, which they then release.<\/line>So outraged is — are these ethics officers that they condemn what this prosecutor has done. That\u2019s how bad it is.<\/line>What can we do about it? Well, we better shine the light of truth on it, because I\u2019ll tell you what. There\u2019s no question here that as long as they can keep dragging Rush through this ridiculous investigation. I don\u2019t know how many prosecutors and how much money they are plying on this. They\u2019re going to hurt him and they know that.<\/line>HANNITY:<\/strong> Let me just point out to our audience, too, that tomorrow night on this program, Rush\u2019s attorney, Roy Black, will be on this program for an exclusive interview with me as to the new developments in this case here.<\/line>But improperly releasing the confidential communications between the government and Roy Black — he\u2019ll address this specifically tomorrow, Mark — that doesn\u2019t happen.<\/line>Wouldn\u2019t this have — If this happened often, wouldn\u2019t it have a profound impact on our legal system, because it would in essence, would end any possibility of plea-bargaining?<\/line>LEVIN: <\/strong>Well, what we have here, Sean is a very Democratic county with an ultra left-wing editorial board with the “Palm Beach Post” and the “Sun Sentinel,” all of them encouraging this kind of activity.<\/line>The prosecutor received 300 e-mails from opponents of Rush, urging him to charge Rush. All of this is playing out in a political way and very few people are paying any attention to this.<\/line>COLMES:<\/strong> Mark, we only have a second. I just want — on privacy I\u2019m with you. And by the way, not only am I with you on the privacy issuing, so is the ACLU. They\u2019ve actually come to Rush\u2019s defense here, acknowledging that\u2019s probably…<\/line>LEVIN:<\/strong> I had a problem when the ACLUS tries to stop little kids from getting quality education. I don\u2019t have a problem when they\u2019re fighting campaign finance reform. I\u2019m with them on that. We\u2019re with them on this.<\/line>We pick and choose our issues, but down the line we don\u2019t agree with them.<\/line>HANNITY: <\/strong>Well, Mark, thank you for what you\u2019re doing here. We\u2019ll have Roy Black, Rush\u2019s attorney, on tomorrow night with an exclusive interview here on HANNITY &amp; COLMES to deal with these new developments.<\/line>Thanks, Mark.<\/line>END TRANSCRIPT<\/strong><\/line><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEGIN TRANSCRIPTCOLMES: Well, it\u2019s been months since radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh admitted and sought treatment for his addiction to the pain killer oxycontin. Prosecutors haven\u2019t charged him with any crimes yet, but now they\u2019re facing scrutiny for their tactics.The Landmark Legal Foundation is asking the Florida Bar to investigate the Palm Beach County […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nMark Levin on Hannity & Colmes - The Rush Limbaugh Show<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2004\/03\/08\/mark_levin_on_hannity_colmes\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Mark Levin on Hannity & Colmes - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"BEGIN TRANSCRIPTCOLMES: Well, it\u2019s been months since radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh admitted and sought treatment for his addiction to the pain killer oxycontin. 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Prosecutors haven\u2019t charged him with any crimes yet, but now they\u2019re facing scrutiny for their tactics.The Landmark Legal Foundation is asking the Florida Bar to investigate the Palm Beach County […]","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"8 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/","name":"The Rush Limbaugh Show","description":"Excellence In Broadcasting","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2004\/03\/08\/mark_levin_on_hannity_colmes\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2004\/03\/08\/mark_levin_on_hannity_colmes\/","name":"Mark Levin on Hannity & Colmes - The Rush Limbaugh Show","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-05-19T07:10:33+00:00","dateModified":"2011-05-19T07:10:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/#\/schema\/person\/911066e449df26406b107ca78cbbde0b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2004\/03\/08\/mark_levin_on_hannity_colmes\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2004\/03\/08\/mark_levin_on_hannity_colmes\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2004\/03\/08\/mark_levin_on_hannity_colmes\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Mark Levin on Hannity & Colmes"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/#\/schema\/person\/911066e449df26406b107ca78cbbde0b","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/#personlogo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f18195e0073013fa0e16b040686c2924?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f18195e0073013fa0e16b040686c2924?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"url":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21869"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21869\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}