Court bid to disclose Harry drug statement
THE US government faces court next week over a bid to reveal Prince Harry’s immigration records and his declarations on past drug abuse.
The Duke of Sussex admitted cocaine and cannabis use in his tellall memoir Spare, and also described taking magic mushroom chocolates at a party at the LA home of Friends actress Courtney Cox in 2016.
Following the release of the book and a publicity tour, a conservative think tank has launched a legal challenge to the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), demanding to see the contents of the Duke’s visa application. The government has so far refused to release the documents and rebuffed a Freedom of Information attempt to obtain the details.
Washington DC federal judge Carl J Nichols will now oversee the legal challenge by the Heritage Foundation, with the hearing set for June 6.
Immigrants seeking a visa or permanent residency in the US must answer questions about their history of drug use. US immigration laws say someone “determined to be a drug abuser” is classed as “inadmissible”. However there is discretion for officials to waive the rules in individual cases. The Heritage Foundation wants to know what Prince Harry disclosed to the authorities in his application, whether a waiver was applied, and who took the decision. “The American people deserve answers to the serious questions raised by the evidence,” it said in a statement.
“Did DHS in fact look the other way, play favourites, or fail to appropriately respond to any potential false statements by Prince Harry?”
Prince Harry and wife Meghan set up home in California in March 2020 after stepping down as working royals.
In Spare, the Duke detailed his use of cannabis and magic mushrooms, and said he took cocaine “to feel different”.
“It wasn’t very fun, and it didn’t make me feel especially happy as seemed to happen to others, but it did make me feel different, and that was my main objective. To feel. To be different”, he wrote. “I was a 17-year-old willing to try almost anything that would alter the pre-established order.”
The Duke could face the possibility of deportation and losing his US residency if it is discovered he lied about drug use on his immigration forms.