EXCLUSIVE: ‘Did he lie or was he given special treatment?’ Conservative group insists government comes clean on Prince Harry, demanding to know how he got his US visa despite his admitted illegal drug use
- The Heritage Foundation is investigating Prince Harry’s immigration filings to determine if he disclosed his previous illegal drug use or got a special waiver
- Harry admitted to taking cocaine, mushrooms and cannabis – an admission that could have resulted in his visa application being denied if declared on the form
- ‘I think the public will be really outraged if he was admitted to the US through a system of preference and privilege,’ a think tank rep told DailyMail.com
A think tank’s probe into Prince Harry’s immigration filings could have ‘major implications’ for his future in the United States, investigators told DailyMail.com – and could soon end up in court.
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative research institute focused on public policy, is currently battling with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to get a copy of the Duke of Sussex’s visa filings under the Freedom of Information Act.
A director at the think tank and their lawyer told DailyMail.com the immigration documents could expose a thorny diplomatic issue: whether Harry declared his previous illegal drug use, and whether DHS officers gave him special treatment.
US think tank, The Heritage Foundation, is investigating Prince Harry’s immigration filings to determine if he disclosed his previous illegal drug use on his application or obtained a special waiver
The Duke of Sussex openly discussed how he experimented with drugs in his youth, including cocaine, magic mushrooms, and marijuana, in his new memoir and in recent interviews
A rather tipsy and red faced Prince Harry is pictured leaving the Embassy nightclub in London with several boozy pals and his brother William in 2006
While applying for his residency permit, Harry had to fill out a form asking if he has ever used illegal drugs.
An answer of ‘yes’ often results in the application’s denial, or a raft of extra hurdles that can even include drug tests and interviews before getting a special waiver to allow a visa.
Harry admitted to taking cocaine, magic mushrooms and cannabis in his memoir, Spare, and in interviews.
The Heritage Foundation argues that means he either lied on his form – usually a surefire way to get kicked out of the country – or DHS gave him a special waiver.
In Spare and the TV interviews that followed, Harry admitted taking cocaine, cannabis and magic mushrooms
In an attempt to find out, they filed a request with the government agency under the Freedom of Information Act on March 8 this year.
In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, the Foundation’s attorney and former top Congressional counsel Samuel Dewey revealed that DHS officials are currently scrambling to find records on the Prince, who has several different official titles and legal names that he may have used on his US immigration application.
Dewey added that if he doesn’t get a satisfactory response by April 12, they will be suing the government in a Washington DC federal court.
‘Even if he came in through a visa, it still has to be cleared by DHS, because you also have to be admissible to the country,’ Dewey said.
‘Our request concerns whether or not he’s admissible without a waiver, given his long history of narcotics use.
‘Individuals in the past with that history have not been let into the country.’
In 2014 celebrity chef Nigella Lawson was banned from flying to the US because she confessed to taking drugs.
Libertines frontman Pete Doherty was also famously banned from the US due to drug-related arrests.
The Heritage Foundation has requested access to Prince Harry’s records from DHS through the Freedom of Information Act
Attorneys at the foundation told DailyMail.com, DHS officials are currently scrambling to find records on the Prince, who has several different official titles and legal names that he may have used on his documents
British celebrity chef Nigella Lawson was banned from flying to the US in 2014 because she confessed to taking drugs. Libertines frontman Pete Doherty was also famously banned from the US due to drug-related arrest
The attorney, who was formerly in charge of oversight and investigations on the US House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, told DailyMail.com that in order to get Harry’s records, there needs to be a public interest that defeats any privacy concerns.
‘There’s a precedent for getting this immigration information from the immigration authorities,’ he said.
‘The first question that a court will ask is, how much of a privacy interest is there here? And we think it’s as low as it can be.
‘This is a public figure who’s been notoriously open for commercial gain,’ the attorney said.
‘He has so aggressively put himself into the public for his commercial benefit that it’s a perfect storm of diminished privacy rights.’
The lawyer joked that he would ask the judge to ‘watch the South Park episode’ – referring to the satirical, irreverent cartoon which skewered Prince Harry and Meghan Markle by portraying ‘the Prince of Canada and his wife’ embarking on a ‘worldwide privacy tour’, loudly demanding ‘privacy’ while also hawking a tell-all book and media appearances.
‘The second question the court will ask is what is the public interest?’ Dewey said.
‘We’ve got a serious problem with our immigration system in this country. And a big part of that problem is laws are not being enforced.
‘So the question is, was preferential treatment given to Prince Harry because of who he was? Was the process not followed? If it wasn’t, that’s a big deal.
Harry spoke about his ‘positive’ experience of psychedelic drug ayahuasca which allegedly helps treat people suffering from mental illness
Ayahuasca is a drink made by boiling together vine stems along with leaves from a chacruna shrub — both native to the Amazonia region
‘If they’re spending a lot of time giving a special unjustified preference to Prince Harry, how does that affect the common immigration applications where people have carefully dotted every I and crossed every T?’
In his autobiography ‘Spare’, Harry revealed that he first took cocaine on a shooting weekend at age 17. He did a ‘few more lines’ on other occasions.
He also admitted to hallucinating during a celebrity-filled event in California and smoking cannabis after his first date with Meghan.
He spoke about his ‘positive’ experience of psychedelic drug ayahuasca saying it ‘brought me a sense of relaxation, release, comfort, a lightness that I managed to hold on to for a period of time’. Ayahuasca is illegal ni the United States unless it is for religious use.
The duke, 38, made the comments in an interview with therapist Dr Gabor Maté,an outspoken supporter of decriminalizing drugs who has allegedly used the Amazonian plant to treat patients suffering from mental illness.
The Duke of Sussex , 38, claimed he used psychedelics like ayahuasca and magic mushrooms (pictured) as ‘medicine’ after the death of his mother Princess Diana in 1997
Nile Gardiner, Director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation, told DailyMail.com that the FOIA request could have severe consequences for Harry’s ongoing immigration status – if it is shown that he lied on official forms.
‘I think what happens with this FOIA request has a direct impact on what happens with Harry’s future in the US, if indeed he wants to become a permanent US resident or a US citizen,’ he said.
‘The stakes are very high here. This issue of a visa application has major implications for his future in the United States.’
Gardiner added that he believes the Prince has now given up any credible claims of privacy regarding the DHS documents.
‘Harry can talk all he likes about protecting privacy, but he’s just written a massive book outlining all of his drug use. I’d say this isn’t a very smart move,’ he said.
‘No one should be above the law. It doesn’t matter if you’re a member of the Royal Family, everyone should be treated the same.
Prince Harry is pictured after a night out at the Cuckoo Club in London in August 2006
‘I think it’s in the public interest to know whether or not Harry was completely transparent in documenting all of his drug use that he outlined in Spare.
‘I think that the public will be really outraged if he was admitted to the United States through a system of preference and privilege, or he got in without revealing the full information.’
The State Department told DailyMail.com that an immigration law makes visa records confidential.
‘Visa records are confidential under Section 222(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA); therefore, we cannot discuss the details of individual visa cases,’ a spokesperson said.
But Dewey said this law only pertains to a ‘small slice’ of immigration documents held by the Department of State, and not to the main bulk of files held by DHS departments such as United States Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) or Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
He said DHS routinely publishes immigration documents related to notable individuals, pointing to records of Kamala Harris’s mother Shyamala Gopalan Harris in 2020, actor Peter Mayhew in 2019 and George Harrison in 2001 on the department’s website.
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