Prince Harry's US visa case takes fresh twist as Biden administration's lawyers cite Donald Trump

Prince Harry's US visa case has taken a fresh twist as the lawyers for the Biden administration have cited Donald Trump as a reason not to release the Duke of Sussex's documents.

Lawyers for the US Government highlighted a court ruling regarding Trump's privacy.

The Heritage Foundation has sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in a bid to get Prince Harry's visa records released.

The think tank launched legal action in a bid to see if the drug admissions the Duke of Sussex made in his autobiography Spare were included on his visa documents.

Prince Harry

Harry wrote that he had used cocaine and magic mushrooms in his memoir which was published in January 2023.

The DHS cited a case in which details of interactions between Donald Trump and the FBI when he was a private citizen were sought under a Freedom of Information request.

John Bardo, representing the Department for Homeland Security, said: "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.

"And I would argue, if President Trump has a privacy interest in that kind of interaction with the government, Prince Harry's privacy interest is even greater.

Prince Harry

"Because he was never a governmental official in this country, has never appeared on a ballot in this country."

Bardo continued: "There is a much greater public interest in an interaction with a would-be elected officer than there is a member of the royal family of a foreign country."

Earlier this month, American immigration lawyer Melissa Chavin told GB News' royal podcast that Prince Harry will not be able to become a US citizen under the rules of his current special kind of visa.

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Melissa Chavin

Chavin told The Royal Record: "There's no path to being a US citizen using an A1 visa. It is a diplomat visa.

"You want to give someone the experience, basically that they're not in the United States, even though they are physically in the United States."

She added regarding the A1 visa: “I think there's a focus on only three areas: terrorism, contrary to foreign policy, and espionage.

"Just on the big headline level of what those ineligibilities might be. Everyone else has a look at whether you violated a controlled substance or statute."