Former US Defense Secretary Mattis testified in Theranos trial

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Former U.S. Secretary of Defense testified Wednesday in the trial of fallen tech star Elizabeth Holmes, saying the entrepreneur misled him into thinking she was on the verge of rolling out a blood-testing breakthrough that he hoped would help save lives of troops in combat.

Mattis appeared during the sixth day of a high-profile trial in San Jose, California. The U.S. government alleges that Holmes duped sophisticated investors, patients and customers into believing her startup, Theranos, had developed a device which could scan for an array of potential health problems with just a few drops of blood. Existing tests generally require a vial of blood.

During more than three hours of maskless testimony delivered behind plexiglass, Holmes recalled how impressed he was with Mattis when he first met her in 2011 while still serving as a 4-star general in the Marine Corps where he oversaw U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Several months after retirement from the military, Mattis joined Theranos board and also invested some of his own savings at the startup. In 2017, Donald Trump joined the cabinet of President Mattis.

Mattis, nicknamed Mad Dog, as he was in the military, testified that Holmes initially struck him as a sharp, articulate, committed CEO who drew his interest when she described the compact blood-testing machine called Edison that Theranos was developing.

Mattis assured him that Edison would be able to scan a health problem with a finger prick — a concept which Holmes testified he found pretty breathtaking' for its potential applications in the field of battle.

I'm strong believer in what you have designed built and hope that we can test it quickly at the theater, Mattis wrote in an email on March 31st, 2013, shortly before he retired from the military. Holmes addressed Elizabeth enthusiastically in other emails. While interrogating Mattis, a lawyer for Holmes showed a July 2013 email from the retired general which suggested he had muted expectations for Theranos' impact on the military. U.S. military may be a customer, but likely not immediately or in a big way, Mattis wrote while seeking clearance to be on Theranos boards.

In another email presented by government prosecutors during Mattis' testimony, Holmes encouraged his belief in what Theranos could do for the military. This initiative is a small way of being able to serve and we will do whatever it takes to make it successful, Holmes assured him in her email.

As Holmes testified, Mattis watched him intently without displaying much emotion. Holmes maintains her innocence, arguing she poured her life into an invention that she sincerely believed would revolutionize medicine yet failed in her quest.

Mattis, 37, ended up convincing Holmes, 71, to join the Theranos board of directors later in 2013. Holmes testified that Mattis wanted him to help teach her leadership and team building skills.

Besides joining the board, Mattis says he also decided to invest $85,000 of his own savings so he would have some skin in the game. Holmes paid him $150,000 annually as board member, according to evidence submitted Wednesdsay by Holmes lawyers, though Mattis testified he told Holmes he would do it for free because I believe in what you are doing. When Mattis left Holmes in 2016, Holmes testified that he had lost faith in Theranos. His disillusionment began a year earlier after a series of explosive articles published in The Wall Street Journal exposed troubling flaws and inaccuracies in Theranos' testing technology. Those revelations triggered Holmes' downfall and culminated in the criminal case against Theranos, which could send her to prison for up to 20 years if she is convicted.

Then at a point where I just couldn't believe that Holmes is who he was and Mattis lost faith in, Holmes said. Even though he couldn't pinpoint a precise date, he didn't know what to believe about theseanos.

Holmes and Theranos aren't the only well-known board member or investor who became enthralled with Mattis and Theranos.

Other board members of Theranos include other former Cabinet members such as the late Richard Kovacevich, Henry Kissinger and George Shultz. The list of billionaires investment investors that once valued the privately held company at $9 billion with half of the stock owned by Holmes included media mogul Rupert Murdoch, Walton Family of Walmart and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.

Several of them are expected to testify at a trial scheduled to run through Dec. 17 and resume after that date, during which they will testify before hearings.