Limbaugh attorney assails probe

Lashing out at what he described as “an invasion of privacy no citizen of this republic should endure,” Rush Limbaugh’s attorney Thursday denounced the Palm Beach State Attorney’s office in Florida, whose investigators questioned the talk radio host’s doctors and seized some of Limbaugh’s medical records.

It was part of an investigation into allegations that Limbaugh, who recently ended a rehabilitation stay at an Arizona facility where he was treated reportedly for addiction to the painkillers hydrocodone, Lorcet and OxyContin, may have obtained the drugs illegally.

Details of Thursday’s interviews will be made public today or Monday in the Palm Beach County Clerk’s office, sources familiar with the case said Thursday. Limbaugh’s attorney, Roy Black, issued a statement Thursday confirming that Limbaugh was addicted to prescription drugs over the course of “legitimate medical treatment.” Limbaugh read the statement to his estimated 20 million listeners on Thursday morning.

A source familiar with the investigation who spoke to The Times only on condition of anonymity said authorities had not “even digested what’s in the files” from Limbaugh’s doctors.

Black did not return phone calls placed to his office by The Times on Thursday afternoon.

The National Enquirer published a cover story in its Oct. 14 issue, in which Limbaugh’s former housekeeper, Wilma Cline, said she had sold Limbaugh large quantities of painkillers between 1998 and 2002. Cline no longer works at Limbaugh’s $24.3-million Oceanside Palm Beach compound, but she struck an immunity deal with the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s office in exchange for details of Limbaugh’s alleged activity.

According the Enquirer article, she said Limbaugh began taking painkillers to numb the pain in his ear. Limbaugh told his listeners on Oct. 10 that he started taking the pain medication after unsuccessful surgery for a herniated disc.

In 2000, Limbaugh made news by announcing on his talk show that he had gone completely deaf in his left ear and that his right ear was degenerating. In 2001 his hearing was restored after he received a cochlear implant at L.A.’s House Ear Clinic and Institute.

Limbaugh has not been charged in connection to the reports published in the Enquirer, although law enforcement sources confirm they are investigating him. After the tabloid hit newsstands, Limbaugh, 52, told listeners he was entering a five-week program at a drug rehabilitation clinic to attempt to kick an addiction he had kept secret.