The Elizabeth Holmes Trial: The Protection Rests Its Case

“By no means,” she mentioned.

Ms. Holmes faces 11 counts of wire fraud and conspiracy. Every rely carries a most sentence of 20 years in jail.

The federal government mentioned it wouldn’t deliver a rebuttal case, which signaled the trial is heading for closing arguments. U.S. District Choose Edward Davila mentioned these would happen Dec. 16 and Dec. 17. Which means the jury will begin deliberating late on Dec. 17, a Friday, or on Dec. 20, the week of Christmas.

One juror has a battle on Dec. 22, compressing an already shortened week due to the vacation.

Ms. Holmes’s testimony marked essentially the most dramatic flip within the criminal-fraud trial, which started in early September. Throughout her time on the witness stand, she testified her ex-boyfriend and Theranos’s former chief working officer,

Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani,

sexually and emotionally abused her, allegations Mr. Balwani denies.

She recounted her imaginative and prescient for the corporate—based when she dropped out of Stanford College—of giving folks extra energy over their well being by enhancing entry to lab checks, and the promise that Theranos’s know-how confirmed.

Underneath cross-examination, Ms. Holmes mentioned she doctored experiences despatched to traders to make them seem as if Theranos’s know-how was validated by main pharmaceutical firms. She testified that she did so with benign intentions, believing the businesses had validated the know-how.

She acknowledged Theranos’s proprietary system had solely ever carried out 12 sorts of checks, although the corporate marketed it may carry out greater than 200.

Ms. Holmes additionally conceded that Theranos used industrial blood analyzers as an alternative of its proprietary machines for many finger-prick blood checks—one thing she had beforehand claimed by no means occurred. She mentioned she didn’t share that info as a result of she was defending commerce secrets and techniques.

Theranos gadgets had been by no means used on navy medical-evacuation helicopters, she mentioned in testimony, regardless of a number of traders testifying that their understanding from Ms. Holmes was that the startup’s know-how was used on the battlefield.

As she wrapped up her time on the witness stand, Ms. Holmes emphatically mentioned she by no means deceived anybody about Theranos’s know-how.

Requested if traders misplaced cash on account of her making an attempt to mislead them, she answered, “In fact not.”

Requested if traders had been entitled to truthful solutions about Theranos’s capabilities, she replied, “In fact.”

Theranos raised almost $1 billion from traders earlier than the startup dissolved in 2018 amid regulatory scrutiny and civil and legal probes.

Ms. Holmes acknowledged that, as chief govt, she was finally accountable for Theranos, however she mentioned she based mostly her statements concerning the firm’s capabilities on what her rank-and-file instructed her.

“I requested our scientists and engineers and members of our technical groups,” Ms. Holmes mentioned on Wednesday. When her legal professional requested if she had any purpose to doubt their sincerity, she mentioned she didn’t.

Write to Heather Somerville at Heather.Somerville@wsj.com and Sara Randazzo at sara.randazzo@wsj.com