Elizabeth Holmes, once the darling of Silicon Valley with her promise to revolutionize healthcare through Theranos, is back in the spotlight—this time, not for a technological breakthrough, but for an audacious bid for freedom. Convicted in 2022 of four counts of felony fraud for deceiving investors about Theranos’s blood-testing technology, Holmes is now serving her sentence at Federal Prison Camp, Bryan, a minimal-security facility in Texas. But recent developments suggest she isn’t resigned to waiting out her time behind bars.
According to The Mercury News and Daily Mail, Holmes has launched a conspicuous campaign on social media, specifically on X (formerly Twitter), to curry favor with Donald Trump and his administration. Experts and public relations consultants believe her sudden online activity is a calculated move aimed at securing a presidential pardon from Trump—potentially her only ticket out of prison before her scheduled release date of December 30, 2031.
Holmes’s downfall was as dramatic as her rise. After founding Theranos, she raised hundreds of millions of dollars by claiming her company could conduct hundreds of blood tests from a single finger prick. The Department of Justice found those claims to be fraudulent, convicting her of wire fraud totaling more than $140 million. The Securities and Exchange Commission went even further, charging her in civil court with defrauding investors out of $700 million. Her conviction marked a stunning reversal for a figure once hailed as a visionary, with Holmes now widely regarded as the architect of one of Silicon Valley’s most notorious scams.
Yet, for all the legal and public condemnation, Holmes has shown little sign of remorse. In fact, she has remained steadfast in professing her innocence. Earlier this month, Holmes posted on X: "Maybe my unwillingness to pretend is the clearest evidence of my innocence, the clearest evidence that I'm not the manipulative person the press has made me out to be. If I was that person, I would fake an apology, I would admit fault for the hundred things I have been accused of." According to Daily Mail, this was just one of dozens of posts she has made in 2025 supporting Trump and the MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) movement.
Holmes’s X profile had been dormant since 2015, when she frequently praised influential women such as Rosa Parks, Marie Curie, Melinda Gates, and Margaret Thatcher. But in August 2025, the narrative shifted dramatically. She began making overtly pro-Trump and pro-MAHA posts, signaling a sharp turn from her previous public persona. In one post, she shared a Politico article about MAHA "embracing" her, writing: "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. I don't know if MAHA is embracing me but I support their cause, Healthier Americans."
Holmes’s new strategy is not lost on observers. Sam Singer, a Bay Area public relations and crisis-control consultant, told The Mercury News: "Elizabeth Holmes is openly seeking a pardon from President Trump, hoping that by a combination of sucking up and perhaps digital fawning that she will get it." Singer added, "It's an interesting strategy. But I think it also plays right into the narrative about Elizabeth Holmes that she's a con woman."
Her timing is notable. Holmes lost an appeal earlier in 2025, effectively closing the door on most conventional paths to early release. Now, only two options remain: a favorable decision from the Supreme Court—which experts consider highly unlikely—or a presidential pardon. As Daily Mail points out, this move could be seen as a Hail Mary attempt to secure her freedom, especially given that Trump’s record includes 69 second-term pardons, 19 of which went to individuals convicted of fraud.
Graham Dodds, a political science professor at Concordia University in Montreal who studies the U.S. presidency, told The Mercury News that Trump has a history of pardoning "a lot of white-collar criminals, a lot of people for fraud." Dodds continued, "He's happy to pardon people who are politically simpatico." This precedent may explain Holmes’s sudden embrace of Trump and the MAHA movement—a calculated alignment with a president known for his willingness to offer clemency to those who support his agenda.
Holmes’s efforts to reshape her public image are a striking contrast to her political affiliations in the past. In 2016, amid her mounting legal troubles, she hosted a high-profile fundraiser for Hillary Clinton at Theranos’s Palo Alto headquarters. That event now stands in stark contrast to her current outreach to Trump and his supporters, highlighting a dramatic shift in her public strategy, perhaps driven by desperation as her legal avenues narrow.
Holmes’s posts on X have not been limited to broad declarations of support. In October, she responded to a tweet about a Trump administration operation against a drug smuggling submarine, quipping: "How long until people claim it was a submersible fishing boat?" In September, she replied to a tweet about Trump and Elon Musk being seen together after a public fallout, writing: "Time to come together." These interactions, according to Singer and other experts, are part of her concerted campaign to ingratiate herself with Trump’s base and, by extension, the former president himself.
The stakes are high, and not everyone is watching with detached curiosity. Rochelle Gibbons, the widow of Theranos’s top scientist Ian Gibbons, who took his own life in 2013, remains a vocal critic. She blames Holmes for her husband’s death, claiming that the relentless pressure and deception at Theranos drove him to despair. "Satisfaction in knowing she's going to suffer because, believe me, I've suffered and Ian suffered. She has shown no remorse for any of the things she's done to anyone, nothing," Rochelle told Daily Mail after Holmes’s sentencing.
As the possibility of a presidential pardon looms, the public debate over Holmes’s fate is likely to intensify. For some, her campaign may reinforce the image of a relentless manipulator willing to shift allegiances for personal gain. For others, it may be seen as a shrewd—if morally ambiguous—attempt to exploit the American system’s capacity for mercy, especially under a president known for his unpredictable and often controversial use of clemency powers.
Whatever the outcome, Holmes’s story remains a cautionary tale about ambition, deception, and the lengths to which some will go to rewrite their own narratives. As she continues her campaign from behind bars, the question lingers: will her gamble pay off, or will it cement her legacy as one of the most notorious figures in recent American business history?
