A lawsuit demanding Prince Harry’s private U.S. visa records be made public has been reopened. It is set to be the first hearing under the new Trump Administration.

In Harry’s memoir Spare, which came out in January 2023, he referenced his history with cocaine, psychedelic mushrooms and marijuana, writing, “It wasn’t much fun, and it didn’t make me particularly happy, as it seemed to make everyone around me, but it did make me feel different, and that was the main goal. Feel. Different.”

Visa applicants are required by law to declare whether or not they have taken any drugs; failure to do so can result in deportation.

Harry’s confessions immediately led the right-wing think tank The Heritage Foundation to complain that the former Duke of Sussex should not have been allowed to move to the country. Heritage called for the Department of Homeland Security to release Harry’s papers in order to see if he had disclosed his drug use previously. In tandem with accusations that Harry lied on his application, Heritage claimed that the Biden Administration awarded Harry preferential treatment.

Despite the argument, last September, a judge ruled that Harry’s application would remain private, stating he had a “legitimate privacy interest in his immigration status.”

The case has now been reopened, and a hearing is set for 2:00 p.m. on Feb. 5. This will be the first hearing of the case under the 2025 Trump administration.

At a political conference in February, President Donald Trump proclaimed that the Biden administration had been “too gracious” regarding Harry’s visa application. Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, moved to California in 2020.

Trump had previously told Express, “I wouldn’t protect him. He betrayed the queen. That’s unforgivable. He would be on his own if it was down to me.”

Nile Gardiner, director of Heritage’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, told The New York Post, “I’ll be urging the president to release Prince Harry’s immigration records, and the president does have that legal authority to do that.”

Gardiner continued, “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 had admitted to extensive illegal drug use…my firm expectation is that action will be taken.”

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Article by Baila Eve Zisman

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