It has been reported that despite US President Donald Trump saying he wouldn’t deport Prince Harry amid the row over his visa he could still support a prosecution if it’s found he lied about his drug use on the application
Prince Harry has been warned he is “far from off-the-hook” with Donald Trump despite the president previously saying he would not deport him from the US.
Just last week the US leader said he would not deport the Duke of Sussex from the US amid a row over his US visa due to his alleged drug use. Earlier this month, a judge hinted that he is open to the possibility of releasing some of the sealed documents from Harry’s US visa application. Court documents reveal that a judge has now set a date for next Thursday (February 20) for the US government to state which legal documents related to the case can be disclosed.
Harry and Meghan at the Invictus Games in Canada (
Image:
Humphrey Nemar/staff Photographer.)
The long-running legal case was sparked when conservative Washington DC think tank The Heritage Foundation questioned why the Duke, who is currently at the Invictus Games in Canada, was allowed into the US in 2020 after he admitted in his book Spare taking cocaine, marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms.
The think tank has argued that Harry either received special treatment from the Biden administration or had lied on his immigration forms. The punishment for lying on forms can include prison, a fine or deportation.
And according to the Mail On Sunday, Trump remains committed to taking action in the form of a trial against Harry if he is found to have lied about his drug use, with sources saying the president has “vowed transparency”.
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A source explained: “President Trump has said he won’t deport Harry but there is no doubt he would support a prosecution.” They added that Harry is not “off-the-hook with Trump”, saying: “The word in Washington is he should be very worried indeed. There is no love lost between the Sussexes and President Trump.”
Trump has spoken out about Harry several times (
Image:
AP)
Just last week when Trump ruled out deporting Harry he took a brutal dig at Harry’s wife Meghan saying: “I’ll leave him alone. He’s got enough problems with his wife. She’s terrible.” Meanwhile, Harry appeared to hit back during a speech at the Invictus Games by criticising the “weak moral character in the world “.
Back in 2016, Meghan called Trump “misogynistic and divisive’ and then, in 2020 during the US election campaign between Trump and Joe Biden, the Sussexes appeared in a video urging Americans to ‘”vote against hate speech”.
While they did not specifically mention anyone by name, the remarks were interpreted as referring to Trump and therefore an endorsement of Mr Biden, with some claiming it was a breach of the Sandringham Summit agreement, which was written up when the couple quit their royal duties in 2020. Later Mr Trump spoke out saying he was “no fan” of Meghan.
The Heritage Foundation originally brought the lawsuit against the Department for Homeland Security (DHS) after a Freedom of Information Act request to see Harry’s visa application was rejected, with the think tank claiming it was of “immense public interest”.
The Heritage Foundation’s lawsuit argued that US law “generally renders such a person inadmissible for entry” to the country. The think tank also said answers on the duke’s prior drug use in his visa application should have been disclosed as they could raise questions over the US government’s integrity.
