The jailed Theranos founder, Elizabeth Holmes, is finding allies in President Donald Trump’s coalition, as she appears to be angling for a pardon.
Jessica Reed Kraus, a chronicler of the Make America Healthy Again movement, wrote a piece for her popular House Inhabit Substack late last month, noting how her ‘trusted MAHA crew’ had encouraged her to reexamine Holmes’ case.
In her post, entitled ‘Elizabeth Holmes’ Redemption Arc Loading,’ Kraus wrote that her MAHA pals had pointed out that Holmes never sold her stock and was cleared of charges related to harming patients.
She found it feasible that Holmes, who started Theranos at age 19, was viewed as ‘a catastrophic threat to a trillion-dollar industry controlled by conglomerates,’ with advancing blood-testing, and called it a ‘more practical angle’ to explain the founder’s downfall.
Holmes was sentenced to 11 and a half years in prison for defrauding investors of her blood testing start-up, a saga detailed in the book Bad Blood and the Hulu TV series The Dropout.
The sentence was shortened, and Holmes is now expected to be released in August 2032 – unless she can get Trump to pardon her before his term is up.
Trump hasn’t shied away from controversial pardons, letting the January 6 rioters off the hook en masse on day one.
He has also been open to pardoning people who are borderline celebrities, as he commuted the prison sentence of former Republican Representative George Santos in October, after being influenced by several current and former members of the Republican caucus.
The jailed Theranos founder, Elizabeth Holmes, is finding allies in President Donald Trump’s coalition, as she appears to be angling for a pardon
Trump also pardoned reality stars Todd and Julie Chrisley in May after their daughter, Savannah, became a MAGA-aligned figure.
Holmes is following that example from the confines of prison, using her X account.
As Kraus pointed out, Holmes has used the account, which she says represents ‘mostly my words, posted by others,’ as her internet use is constrained in prison to praise the president and other figures in his orbit.
She’s said positive things about Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the de facto leader of the MAHA movement, along with the late Charlie Kirk, Kai Trump, Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk, who’s now on better terms with the president after their June falling out.
Holmes has followed the coverage of her making inroads with MAHA and MAGA.
When Politico published a magazine piece Tuesday about the MAHA embrace of her prison plight, she reshared it, acknowledging that she believed in their cause.
‘I have been working to Make America Healthy Again since 2004. I will continue to dedicate my life ahead to improving healthcare in this beautiful country I call home,’ Holmes wrote. ‘I don’t know if MAHA is embracing me but I support their cause, Healthier Americans.’
In the Politico piece, Benjamin Mazer, a pathologist and assistant professor at Johns Hopkins, explained the common strands between Holmes and MAHA.
Trump hasn’t shied away from controversial pardons, as he’s pardoned reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley and former Republican Representative George Santos
‘She was very big in positioning herself as an anti-establishment figure,’ said Mazer, who has written in the past about Holmes and the MAHA movement separately. ‘The large lab companies were the bad guys, and then she’s the outsider, small player who is going to overtake the establishment. That fits in with [MAHA.]’
Holmes has also caught the attention of a prominent figure in the pro-life movement – long a part of the Republican Party – with anti-abortion activist Lila Rose sharing one of her posts earlier this month with the comment, ‘Free Liz.’
The Theranos founder said she was ‘pro-life’ after she got pregnant months before her trial.
In an X post in October, Holmes said prosecutors told her she could have ‘handled it.’
‘They suggested I should have had an abortion. I would never. All life is precious and worth fighting for. We must protect it and defend it,’ Holmes wrote.
Trump hasn’t been asked if he’d consider pardoning Holmes.
The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Mail’s request for comment.
