The American visa and drugs are the focus of a judicial hearing on Prince Harry in Washington

Yesterday, the American judiciary considered a lawsuit filed by a conservative association demanding additional information about the American visa granted to Prince Harry, despite his admission of drug use in the United States.

Away from the High Court in London, where the Duke of Sussex testified on the same day criticizing the “hostility” of the press towards him, a federal judge in Washington devoted a hearing to a lawsuit brought by the Heritage Foundation (“Heritage Foundation”), in the name of the “media interest”.

This highly influential organization in conservative circles is requesting, under freedom of information laws, to obtain the immigration file of the prince, who settled in California in 2020 with his American wife, Megan Markle, following their differences with the British royal family.

In her appeal, she notes that King Charles III’s youngest son “has publicly confessed (…) to a number of drug offenses in the United States and abroad.” And she pointed out that “US law usually makes these people ineligible to enter” the country.

The case involves Prince Harry, “but it is primarily related to the Department of Homeland Security and its respect for the law,” according to what the organization’s attorney, Samuel Dewey, told Judge Carl Nichols. Dewey pointed out that this topic “is causing a very wide media interest.”

DHS attorney John Pardo responded that “a person’s visa remains … classified.”

Dewey said upon leaving court that the request from the organization did not infringe on Prince Harry’s private life because he had “spoke and written so much” about his drug use.

In his memoirs, published in January, Prince Harry admitted to using cannabis, psychotropic drugs and cocaine in the UK, Lesotho and on US soil.

In 2002, Harry writes, in this book entitled “Spare”, “in someone’s country house, on a weekend hunting holiday, I was given (some drugs), then I had a few them later.” He also admitted in his memoirs that he “devoured” hallucinogenic mushrooms at a party in Los Angeles in 2016.

“The anesthetics helped me too. I took them for fun for years (…) and then for therapeutic and medical purposes,” he added, presenting himself as an “unhappy” young man who is willing to try anything to “change the status quo.”

However, the Heritage Foundation indicated that other people, including celebrities such as football legend Maradona or singer Amy Winehouse, were refused entry to US soil because of their drug use.

In particular, the foundation requests access to the questionnaire filled out by Prince Harry to enter the United States, which requires each person applying to enter the country to declare whether he has used drugs before.

So far, the foundation’s request has been rejected by three entities affiliated with the ministry, but it has not received a response from the leadership of this ministry.

While acknowledging that these documents “may have some significance to the public,” the government considered that the US mainstream media had not considered the prince’s legal status, and that there was no urgent need to take action.