Prince Harry’s immigration papers should remain private and any “speculation of impropriety was unfounded,” according to Biden administration lawyers, in a filing seen by Newsweek.
The Duke of Sussex revealed in Spare that he had experimented with illegal drugs throughout his life, including cannabis, magic mushrooms, cocaine and ayahuasca.
Conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation sued the Department of Homeland Security, arguing the public had the right to know whether he disclosed such experiences on his visa application.
They argue he must either have lied—potentially threatening his future in America—or been given favorable treatment, suggesting wrongdoing by the government.
Heritage lost the case but is attempting to overturn the ruling, after the full justification for throwing out the claims was redacted to protect Harry’s privacy.
The Biden administration has now responded to that challenge doubling down on its defence of the handling of Harry’s move to the U.S.
A Government court filing, seen by Newsweek, read: “The evidence before the Court plainly sufficed to show that [Heritage’s] speculation of impropriety was unfounded.”
Judge Carl J. Nichols reviewed Harry’s immigration records in private without revealing the contents, prior to terminating the case in September.
“Following in camera review of certain records and associated declarations, the Court agrees that the Duke’s privacy interest outweighs any public interest, and therefore grants Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment.”
Mike Howell, executive director of the think tank’s Oversight Project, responded in a statement to Newsweek at the time: “The Prince Harry scandal just got a lot more suspicious. While our case is far from over as we explore appeal, I’d say that these very curious redactions point to something serious afoot.”
Biden Administration lawyers wrote in their latest filing: “The public declarations provided the maximum amount of information about the documents without revealing non-public information about the Duke of Sussex’s immigration status, any immigration benefits that he sought, or any adverse actions to which he was subject.”
They argued Heritage’s “purported evidence of government wrongdoing amounted merely to a ‘bare suspicion’ of government misconduct, which is insufficient to override the Duke’s privacy interests.”
“Rather than take these declarations at face value,” the filing continued, “the Court sought supplemental declarations and other materials that contained facts about the Duke’s immigration status and entry into the United States.
“Based on these facts, the Court did not find evidence of government impropriety. Even Plaintiffs admitted that if the records show that the ‘expected impropriety did not occur then the case is immediately at an end[.]’”
Harry’s book Spare read: “Psychedelics did me some good as well. I’d experimented with them over the years, for fun, but now I’d begun to use them therapeutically, medicinally.
“They didn’t simply allow me to escape reality for a while, they let me redefine reality. Under the influence of these substances I was able to let go of rigid preconcerts, to see that there was another world beyond my heavily filtered senses, a world that was equally real and doubly beautiful—a world with no red mist, no reason for red mist. There was only truth.
“After the psychedelics wore off my memory of that world would remain: This is not all there is. All the great seers and philosophers say our daily life is an illusion. I always felt the truth in that.”
Writing about cocaine, Harry said: “It wasn’t much fun and it did not make me feel especially happy as it seemed to do to everyone else, but it did make me feel different, and that was my main objective.
“I was a 17-year-old boy ready to try anything that altered the preestablished order.”
Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.
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