‘Prince Harry’s memoir isn’t proof,’ argue US lawyers in battle over duke’s visa after he wrote about taking cocaine
US FEDERAL lawyers tonight defended its decision to grant Prince Harry's visa despite his memoir's claims he took drugs.
The Duke of Sussex wrote about taking coke, weed and magic mushrooms in his memoir Spare.
But lawyers have now claimed the book "is not proof".
Conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation has sued the Department for Homeland security in a row over Harry's visa.
In a case heard before a court in Washington DC on Friday, the foundation argued the Duke's past drug use should have disqualified him from entering the US under federal law.
A court filing also accused the dad-of-two of "bragging" about using drugs and called for his immigration records to be shared as a matter of "immense public interest".
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Saying something in a book doesn’t necessarily make it true
John Bardo
But John Bardo, a lawyer for the Biden administration, told the court “the book isn’t sworn testimony or proof”.
He added: "Saying something in a book doesn’t necessarily make it true.
"Prince Harry is one foreign national out of many who enter the US legally.”
Samuel Dewey, for the Heritage Foundation, argued: "Spare is a valid admission, the Duke has confirmed its accuracy."
Holding up a copy of the memoir, he said that the government was "providing special treatment to celebrities" to enter the US.
He said: "Prince Harry admitted to daily drug use after being let into the US.
"The Duke's admissions make him inadmissible."
Dewey added that the case also raised "profound questions about DHS conduct”.
Speaking outside court, Dewey said: "This case is important because we want to know if the DHS is giving special treatment to high-profile celebrities, and this is probably the most high-profile celebrity out there who's been in the United States, and were there red flags?"
He also claimed a diplomatic visa doesn't allow an individual to work in the U.S., while Harry is working in the country.
Dewey said: ”The Royal Family withdrew Prince Harry's security, how could he still be on a diplomatic visa?"
The DHS previously said the release of immigration documents would be an "unwarranted invasion of Harry's privacy".
Speaking to The Sun, DC-based attorney John Witherspoon said: "I would be quite surprised if Prince Harry was in the United States on a diplomatic visa.
"I don't think the Duke of Sussex would qualify inasmuch as he is not in the USA to represent the British Government on official business, and moreover, he has engaged in commercial activity on American soil.
"If it came to light that Prince Harry was in the country on a diplomatic visa, I think it would embarrass both the United States Government and His Majesty's Government.
"I don't imagine either country would want to risk damage to bilateral relations, especially over the likes of the Duke of Sussex."
'MARIJUANA HELPED ME'
The Duke wrote in Spare that cocaine "didn't do anything for me" when he took "a line" aged 17.
The 39-year-old added: "Marijuana is different, that actually really did help me."
After taking magic mushrooms, Harry said he started hallucinating and thought a bin in a bathroom was staring at him before growing a head.
The Heritage Foundation's director Nile Gardiner has now said it is “preposterous” the Prince's visa application should be kept private given how vocal he's been about his drug use.
Speaking after the hearing, Mr Gardiner said: "This is Prince Harry's own book, 'Spare'. It has his name on it, it wasn't written by someone else. He has never denied anything in his own book."
"There's an extraordinary level of secrecy and unaccountability from the Biden administration."
He said Prince Harry should be open about his visa process "if he has nothing to hide".
Before the hearing he said: “The American people expect their leader to enforce immigration law strictly and this should apply to anyone entering the US including royals like Prince Harry.”
Applicants for a visa to live and work in the U.S. have to answer “yes” or “no” to the question: “Are you or have you ever been a drug abuser or addict?”
The Department for Homeland Security said it cannot confirm whether Harry made any application alongside his visa relating to exemptions of drug use.
It added: “The mere acknowledgement of these records would constitute an unwarranted invasion of Prince Harry’s privacy.
"The records are particularly sensitive because releasing them, even in part, would reveal Prince Harry’s status in the United States, which Prince Harry has not disclosed.”
The case began after Prince Harry "voluntarily - and for immense profit admitted in writing" to taking drugs, the court filing revealed.
It added: "Indeed, some say HRH has approached the point of bragging and encouraging illegal drug use.
“The Duke of Sussex did so despite the fact that it is widely known that such admissions can have adverse immigration consequences for non-citizens and despite employing preeminent legal advisers on both sides of the Atlantic.”
DID PRINCE HARRY LIE?
District Judge Carl J. Nichols asked if the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had a duty to investigate whether Harry lied on his visa application.
Laying out the "three options" which would have allowed Harry to enter the United States, the judge said: "If Harry answered yes to the question on his visa application of whether he took drugs in March 2020, he wouldn't have been permitted entry to the US, unless he had a diplomatic visa, or he sought a waiver.
"The waiver option is for someone otherwise deemed inadmissible to the US.
"There is no other way he could have entered the United States.
";If he answered yes on the visa form to past drug use, a consular officer would have to seek admission to the country.”
Judge Nichols said that it was “not plausible” that Harry would have been granted a diplomatic visa following Megxit.
He said: "It seems preposterous that (Harry) would be on a diplomatic visa given relations with the royals.”
Addressing the government's lawyer he said: "Doesn't the public have an interest in knowing what routes the government took?”
The Heritage Foundation believes Harry may have ticked the “yes” box and been granted a waiver.
If so, it is seeking to find out who would have granted the waiver.
At one point the Judge said he was "uncomfortable" referring to the royal as Prince Harry, adding: "It would be like calling me Judge Carl."
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He referred to him as The Duke of Sussex for the rest of the hour-long session at the US District Court for the District of Columbia.
Judge Nichols will hand down a written ruling in the coming weeks.
WHAT HAS THE DUKE OF SUSSEX SAID ABOUT HIS DRUG USE?
In his 2023 memoir Spare, Harry admitted to taking cannabis, cocaine and magic mushrooms throughout his life.
Speaking of his cocaine use aged 17, he explained: "At someone's house, during a hunting weekend, I was offered a line, and since then I had consumed some more.
"It wasn't very fun, and it didn't make me feel especially happy as seemed to happen to others, but it did make me feel different, and that was my main objective.
"To feel. To be different."
Harry said he took psychedelics both for fun and therapeutically over the years,
After taking magic mushrooms, the Duke said he started hallucinating, and thought a bin in a bathroom was staring at him before growing a head.
The Duke also made several admissions to using cannabis, including at Kensington Palace and as a pupil at Eton.
He revealed he smoked a spliff and watched a Disney film after his first date with Meghan Markle in 2016.
Harry also admitted to enjoying a bit of bud after putting the kids to bed at his home in Montecito, California.
He wrote: "Late at night, with everyone asleep, I'd walk the house, checking the doors and windows.
"Then I'd sit on the balcony or the edge of the garden and roll a joint.
"The house looked down onto a valley, across a hillside thick with frogs. I’d listen to their late-night song, smell the scented air."
Harry wrote that under the influence of drugs, he was able to see there was “another world where the red mist didn’t exist”.
He said drugs helped him both escape and “redefine” reality.