A US think tank wants to reopen its case to make public Prince Harry’s secret US visa application after he admitted to taking drugs in his memoir.
The Heritage Foundation questioned why the Duke of Sussex was allowed to enter the US with his wife Meghan in 2020 following his reference to cocaine, marijuana and psychedelic mushroom use in his book Spare, which was published in January 2023.
The Washington DC conservative group filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after a Freedom of Information request was denied.
Heritage claimed Harry’s document was of “immense public interest” but lost the case on September 23 after Judge Carl Nichols ruled it should remain private.
The case was initiated because visa applicants must by law declare whether they have used drugs. Failure to do so can result in deportation, and Heritage wanted the US government to release the records to see what Harry said about drug use.
Now, Heritage has filed a new court filing as it attempts to reopen the case, as the Biden administration did not allow the judge to see private presentations.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle outside St Paul’s Cathedral in London on June 3, 2022
The 13-page motion filed Tuesday attempts to “vacant” the earlier ruling and reveal private correspondence between DHS and the judge, it said. news week.
The judge’s order was drafted to protect the duke’s privacy, but Heritage said this “seriously compromises” his ability to “prepare arguments on appeal.”
Parts of the ruling that were redacted included facts that Harry has not publicly disclosed regarding his immigration status and records, and what was contained in his visa application.
But Heritage’s lawyers said there was “ample evidence of bad faith by the agency,” and said its legal team was “not blind to the fact that they had presented a unique case that is rife with these complexities.”
They added that Heritage’s attorneys “simply maintain that the court’s path forward does not fit our adversarial system.”
US Judge Carl Nichols ruled on September 23 against the Heritage Foundation
In the ruling on September 23, Judge Nichols said that “the public does not have a strong interest in the disclosure of the duke’s immigration records.”
Harry spoke about drug use in his memoir Spare, which was published in January 2023.
His ruling added: ‘Like any foreign national, the duke has a legitimate privacy interest in his immigration status.
“And the Duke’s public statements about his travels and drug use did not reveal, and therefore did not eliminate, his interest in maintaining private and specific information about his immigration status, applications or other materials.”
Judge Nichols went on to say that the public’s interest in the disclosure of Harry’s immigration records is “outweighed by the Duke’s privacy interest.”
He said: ‘Public release of records regarding a single admission of a foreign national in the circumstances described above would provide the public with, at best, limited information about the department’s overall policy on the admission of foreign nationals.
“And the marginal public benefit of knowing that limited information is outweighed by the privacy interest the duke retains in his immigration status and records.”
In March, Department of Homeland Security lawyers asked for more time to comply with a judge’s order to provide more information about why he did not want to release the records.
In his controversial memoir, the duke said cocaine “did nothing for me”, adding: “Marijuana is different, that really helped me.”
Judge Carl Nichols said “the public does not have a strong interest in the disclosure of the Duke’s immigration records.”
Heritage’s original lawsuit argued that U.S. law “generally makes entry of such a person inadmissible” into the country.
The group also said answers about the duke’s prior drug use in his visa application should have been revealed as they could raise questions about the integrity of the US government.
In DHS’s response to the legal complaint, it said, “Like health, financial, or employment information, a person’s immigration information is private personal information.”
Submissions made by attorney John Bardo on behalf of DHS also said there is “no publicly available information to demonstrate that Prince Harry was ever convicted of a drug-related offense.”
Bardo added that any suggestion from Heritage about wrongdoing by the US government was “purely speculative.”
In March, former President Donald Trump suggested that Harry could be deported if his drug use was not disclosed in the application.
The immigration file of Melania Trump’s Slovenian mother, Amalija Knavs, was released by think tank The Heritage Foundation amid its battle with the US Department of Homeland Security.
He told GB News: “We will have to see if they know anything about the drugs, and if he lied they will have to take appropriate action.”
Asked if that meant the Duke “won’t stay in America”, he said: “Oh, I don’t know.” You’ll have to tell me. You just have to tell me. You would have thought they would have known this a long time ago.
Separately, the Heritage Foundation has released the immigration records of Melania Trump’s mother after a successful Freedom of Information request to DHS.
The 166 pages of documents related to Amalija Knavs, who was sworn in as a U.S. citizen in 2018 but died in Miami in January at age 78.
A lawyer for the family told DailyMail.com that Mrs. Trump was “rightly upset” by the release and “will seek to explore options for retaliation to protect her family.”
Ms. Knavs’ documents include very personal information, such as her home address in her native Slovenia and several complete passports.
They also contain medical and vaccination information that reveals a negative HIV test result and your vaccination records against chickenpox and other diseases.
Heritage has cited the publication of Ms. Knavs’ file as an additional reason for making Harry’s case public. MailOnline has contacted the Duke’s spokesperson for comment.