Barabak: Holmes is a liar, swindler and cheat. So why wouldn't Trump pardon her?

"Peering wide-eyed and black-turtlenecked from a shelf load of magazine covers. Honored as a "Woman of the Year" by Glamour. Touted as one of Time's "100 Most Influential People." At age 30, Holmes was regarded as a preternatural business talent - and, more impressively, described as the youngest self-made female billionaire in history - owing to her founding and stewardship of Theranos, a Silicon Valley start-up that promised to revolutionize health care by diagnosing a host of maladies with just a pinprick's worth of blood."

"In January 2022, a jury in San Jose convicted Holmes on four counts of fraud and conspiracy. At age 37, she became a case study in gullibility and greed. Months later, Holmes - by then a mother of two - was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison. She began serving her term in May 2023, at a women's prison camp outside Houston."

"Now, Holmes - who spawned a best-selling book, podcasts, a documentary, a TV miniseries and, not incidentally, stole hundreds of millions of dollars from investors - is lobbying for a pardon from President Trump. And why not? Game knows game. Grift knows grift. Presidential whim Of all the powers a president wields, few match his awesome pardon authority. It is sweeping and life-changing. Idiosyncratic, resting wholly on personal whim, and irrevocable. Once granted, it is impossible to reverse."

Elizabeth Holmes rose to fame as the youthful founder of Theranos, appearing on magazine covers and receiving prominent honors. Theranos promised to diagnose many diseases from a single pinprick of blood. The company's technology and Holmes's medical claims proved fraudulent, and Holmes adopted a husky TED-style voice and Steve Jobs-like turtlenecks. In January 2022 a jury convicted Holmes on four counts of fraud and conspiracy. She was sentenced to eleven years and three months and began serving her sentence in May 2023 at a women's prison camp near Houston. Holmes is now seeking a presidential pardon, illustrating the sweeping, idiosyncratic, and irrevocable nature of executive clemency.

Read at The Mercury News