Details surrounding Prince Harry’s visa arrangements will remain confidential, following a precedent set by a case involving Donald Trump. The Heritage Foundation, a Washington DC-based think tank, sued Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), seeking to disclose details of the Duke’s visa application.
The group is keen to uncover whether Harry was given preferential treatment during his visa application process, especially after he confessed in his memoir, Spare, to past drug use. However, the US government is now referencing a case involving former US president Donald Trump as grounds for withholding details of Prince Harry’s immigration status.
The Trump case concerned potential interactions he may have had with the FBI before 2015 when he was a private citizen, and information about this case was also requested under a freedom of information request. John Bardo, a lawyer representing the department, stated: “They found that President Trump, from when he was a private citizen, his privacy interests outweighed any public interest that there may be in previous interactions he may have had with the FBI.”
READ MORE:Prince Harry ‘brooding over past’ with Meghan Markle ‘not on same page’
He further argued: “If President Trump has a privacy interest in that kind of interaction with the government, Prince Harry’s privacy interest is even greater. Because he was never a governmental official in this country, has never appeared on a ballot in this country.”
According to US law, anyone who has taken drugs or is labelled as a “drug abuser” could be deemed “inadmissible” to the country. This rule has previously barred other high-profile figures and celebrities from entering the US, reports the Express US.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are reportedly “worried sick” about potentially being “kicked out” of their new home country if former president Donald Trump returns to power, reported Australian magazine New Idea.
Trump had earlier hinted to the Daily Express that he is thinking about revoking the Duke of Sussex’s visa if he wins the upcoming November election. Prince Harry’s US visa application is currently under judicial review and lawyers for US President Joe Biden are complying with a court order to progress the case.
? Sign up to our daily newsletters for all the latest and greatest from across London here.
