US ‘refuses to release Prince Harry’s visa application’ after he admitted to drug use

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has reportedly denied a think tank’s demand that the agency release Prince Harry’s visa application after he admitted to using drugs.

Conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation sued to push for the disclosure of Harry’s visa application after his admission in his memoir Spare. But the DHS has apparently rejected the foundation’s request.

‘To the extent records exist, this office does not find a public interest in disclosure sufficient to override the subject’s privacy interests,’ DHS Senior Director Jimmy Wolfrey wrote in an emailed letter obtained by the New York Post on Wednesday afternoon.

Heritage’s outside counsel Samuel Dewey responded that the decision ‘shows an appalling lack of transparency by the Biden Administration’.

‘The Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to stonewall the Heritage Foundation’s Freedom of Information request are unacceptable, and we will be contesting their position,’ said Dewey, according to the Post.

Heritage filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suit in May to compel transparency on how Harry answered questions to obtain his visa to live in the US. Applicants are required to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the question, ‘Are you or have you ever been a drug abuser or addict?’

Harry opened up about using recreational drugs including magic mushrooms, cocaine and marijuana in his best-selling tell-all published in January.

The Duke of Sussex and his wife Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, stepped back from being working members of the British royal family and moved into their new home in Montecito, California, in July 2020.

On Wednesday, Heritage’s request for a preliminary injunction was withdrawn as moot after the DHS replied, ‘We can neither confirm nor deny the existence of any records relating to your request’, Inner City Press reported.

The DHS cited FOIA exemptions including (b)(7)(C) which ‘excludes records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes, but only to the extent that the production of such materials could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy’.

Both parties met on June 6 with District Judge Carl Nichols, who ruled that the DHS had to make a decision on Heritage’s request by June 13.

Dewey said that Heritage ‘expected to have to fight every step of this case in federal court and will continue to press for transparency and accountability for the American people’.

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