A federal judge indicated that he is “likely” to release immigration files on Prince Harry after the first hearing in the royal’s high-profile case since President Donald Trump took office.
U.S. District Court Judge Carl J. Nichols said Harry’s files should be released “to the maximum extent possible,” during Wednesday’s hearing in Washington, D.C., according to a report from the New York Post, with the judge reasoning that he is “required to make public everything that can be made public” but would take care not to violate any privacy laws.
“I’m going to take this in stages,” Nichols said, noting that the government will have the ability to propose potential redactions.
The Wednesday hearing marked the first in the case since the inauguration of Trump, who has been pressed in recent weeks to step in and unseal Harry’s immigration records.
“I’ll be urging the president to release Prince Harry’s immigration records and the president does have that legal authority to do that,” Nile Gardiner of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank behind the lawsuit to unseal Harry’s records, told the New York Post.
“It’s important because this is an issue of the rule of law, transparency and accountability. No one should be above the law,” Gardiner added. “Donald Trump is ushering in a new era of strict border control enforcement, and you know, Prince Harry should be held fully to account as he has admitted to extensive illegal drug use.”
At issue in the case is whether Harry lied on immigration forms or was provided with special treatment when he initially moved to the U.S. in 2020, a question that arose after the royal admitted to using illegal drugs in his memoir “Spare,” which was released in 2023.
The admission by Harry sparked a lawsuit by the Heritage Foundation, which sued the Department of Homeland Security in an attempt to have the royal’s immigration records released.
For his part, Trump indicated on the campaign trail that he is open to deporting Harry and has in the past been critical of the royal’s move to the United States.
“He has been so disrespectful to the country, and I think he’s an embarrassment,” Trump said in a 2022 interview with Piers Morgan.
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