Either the prince answered truthfully about his drug use, prompting the question — why was he granted a visa without further interrogation as is standard procedure? Or, he lied and said he hadn’t taken drugs which would put him in very hot water with the US authorities — perjury.
As the second day of court proceedings in London’s High Court were concluding, a judge 3,000 miles away in a US Federal Court was also talking about the Duke of Sussex.
It was certainly an unusual stroke of legal coincidence.
In courtroom number 17 of the E Barrett Prettyman US Courthouse in Washington DC, Judge Carl Nichols was hearing the opening arguments of a curious case which Prince Harry finds himself embroiled in.
It hinges around the duke’s US visa application and specifically two questions within that application which he would have been required to answer (under oath) when he applied for the visa to move to America in 2020.
The first of the key questions, in America’s Department for Homeland Security DH160 visa form, asks: «Have you ever been a drug abuser or addict?»
The second asks: «Have you ever violated, or engaged in a conspiracy to violate, any law relating to controlled substances?»
But why is this case being heard? Well, it was brought by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative US-based think tank which likes to hold the centre-left administration of President Joe Biden to account.
