More than 80 pages of court filings and transcripts have been released, but are heavily redacted
The US government has released documents related to Prince Harry’s 2020 visa application.
However it redacted large portions, saying it had a duty to protect the Duke of Sussex’s privacy and there was no evidence he received special treatment.
The Duke of Sussex’s reference to taking cocaine, marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms in his bookSpare prompted a prominent conservative think-tank to question if he made false statements in his application before moving to California with his wife in 2020.
The Heritage Foundation had filed a Freedom of Information Act request, arguing the public had a right to know if the royal disclosed the prior drug use that he detailed in his memoir on his application.
More than 80 pages of court filings and transcripts were released on Tuesday with large sections covered in black.
Immigration officials said the Heritage Foundation had not established that the public interest outweighed the right to privacy for Harry, the Duke of Sussex.
“Plaintiffs allege that the records should be disclosed as public confidence in the government would suffer or to establish whether the Duke was granted preferential treatment. This speculation by Plaintiffs does not point to any evidence of government misconduct,” wrote Jarrod Panter, an official in the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, part of the Department of Homeland Security.
Harry and his wife Meghan Markle dropped their royal duties in Britain and moved to the United States in 2020.
Donald Trump previously warned that Harry could face consequences if he lied about taking drugs on his US visa application.
He told GB News last year that the Duke should not receive preferential treatment if he is found to have lied in his visa application.
Representatives for Harry and the Heritage Foundation have not yet commented.
With agencies