Prince Harry's US visa drugs lawsuit set for court hearing
Updated: 01:54 GMT, 29 January 2025
A lawsuit to make Prince Harry's secret visa records public is set to have its first court hearing since Donald Trump's inauguration.
The Heritage Foundation has reopened its case to have the duke's immigration papers released.
The American think tank has raised questions about how he was able to gain entry to the US in 2020 with his wife Meghan having admitted in his 2023 book Spare to taking cocaine, marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms.
Heritage has made accusations Harry had either lied on his papers about his drug use or has been given special treatment by the Joe Biden administration in order to emigrate to the country.
Lawyers for the think tank and the Department for Homeland Security have now been ordered by Judge Carl J Nichols to meet at a federal court in Washington DC next Wednesday, February 5.
Heritage lost a previous case in September when it brought a lawsuit against the Department for Homeland Security after a Freedom of Information request for Harry's documents to be released was rejected.
In his first ruling Judge Nichols said they should remain private.
The case was brought because visa applicants must by law declare whether they have taken drugs. Failure to do so can lead to deportation, and Heritage wanted the US Government to release the records to see what Harry said about drug usage.
Trump previously suggested Harry may be deported from the US under his leadership if the Duke is found to have falsified information on his visa form - even though his wife is American and his children are dual citizens.
The US President criticised the duke in February last year and accused him of betraying the late Queen Elizabeth II.
He told the Sunday Express: 'I wouldn't protect him... That's unforgiveable. He would be on his own if it was down to me.'
Trump was urged this week by Heritage to release Harry's immigration files.
Now that the Duke of Sussex no longer has support from the Biden administration, lawyers and fellows at the Heritage Foundation are hoping the newly elected president will override the court's decision to keep the files secret.
'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, director of Heritage's Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom told the New York Post.