Elizabeth Holmes Asks Trump to Cut Prison Term

Elizabeth Holmes is asking President Trump for a break. A filing on the Justice Department's Office of the Pardon Attorney website shows the Theranos founder has submitted a formal request for her sentence to be commuted, with the status listed as "pending," per the Guardian. The White House has not commented. If the request is granted, the 41-year-old mother to two young children would walk out of prison almost six years early, CNN reports. She's currently held at the minimum-security Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas.

Holmes is serving more than 11 years after a jury convicted her in 2022 on four counts of defrauding investors in her blood-testing startup, once touted as a multibillion-dollar revolution in health care. The onetime Silicon Valley star dropped out of Stanford and, despite having no medical training, persuaded high-profile figures including Rupert Murdoch, Henry Kissinger, and Larry Ellison to back Theranos, which promised hundreds of tests from a finger-prick of blood. That story began to collapse in 2015 when it was revealed Theranos' devices weren't actually doing most of the testing they were advertised to perform.

Holmes stepped aside as CEO in 2018, the same year federal prosecutors charged her and former Theranos president Sunny Balwani with defrauding investors and patients and misrepresenting the technology's capabilities. Balwani was also convicted and sentenced to prison. Trump has granted clemency to more than 1,600 people in his second term, the bulk tied to the January 6 Capitol attack, a sharp increase from the 237 pardons and commutations he issued in his first term. A Wednesday post on Holmes' X account reads in part, "We are continuing to fight for my innocence," per CNN. The account has also praised Trump's "Great Healthcare Plan."