Today is the deadline for the US government to state which legal documents can be disclosed relating to Prince Harry’s visa application, which has come under scrutiny
The long-running battle over whether Prince Harry’s US visa application should be made public reaches a crunch date today.
Earlier this month, a judge suggested he could allow the release of some sealed documents from Harry’s visa application in a lengthy legal case sparked when conservative Washington DC think tank The Heritage Foundation questioned why the Duke of Sussex was allowed into the US in 2020.
The group are questioning the granting of his visa after he admitted in his book Spare taking cocaine, marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms. The think tank has argued that Harry either received special treatment from the Biden administration or had lied on his immigration forms.
Prince Harry at the Invictus Games last week (Image: PA)
Several weeks ago, Judge Carl Nichols told a hearing in Washington DC that he wanted “maximum disclosure as long as it doesn’t violate privacy.” He set a date of today (February 20) for the US government to state which legal documents related to the case can be disclosed. It could pave the way for documents to be released after the judge previously said that after the US government meet the deadline, “the Court will determine what portions of those materials can be produced to Heritage”.
US visa applications specifically ask the individual about current and past drug use, which can have a detrimental impact on the progress of the application. Prolific drug use can lead to applications being rejected. However, immigration officers use their discretion against a range of factors.
Prince Harry has found himself in a row over his US visa (Image: Getty Images)
Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump publicly spoke out about the case saying he would not deport Harry. But in a brutal dig at Meghan, he added: “I’ll leave him alone. He’s got enough problems with his wife. She’s terrible.”
In a previous hearing for the case in September, a judge ruled the public did not have a strong interest in disclosure of the Duke’s immigration records, but the Heritage Foundation is asking for the judgment to be changed. The organisation originally brought the lawsuit against the Department for Homeland Security (DHS) after a Freedom of Information Act request was rejected, with the think tank claiming it was of “immense public interest”.
In his controversial memoir, the duke said cocaine “didn’t do anything for me”, adding: “Marijuana is different, that actually really did help me.” The Heritage Foundation’s lawsuit argued that US law “generally renders such a person inadmissible for entry” to the country.
The think tank also said answers on the duke’s prior drug use in his visa application should have been disclosed as they could raise questions over the US government’s integrity. In the DHS’s response to the legal claim, it said: “Much like health, financial, or employment information, a person’s immigration information is private personal information.”
The submissions previously made by lawyer John Bardo on behalf of DHS also said no “publicly available information shows that Prince Harry was ever convicted for a drug-related offence”. Mr Bardo added that any suggestion from the Heritage Foundation of wrongdoing on behalf of the US government was “purely speculative”.
