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Live Updates: Elizabeth Holmes Has Arrived at Court To Testify Again in the Theranos Trial



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Nov. 22, 2021, 12:51 p.m. ETNov. 22, 2021, 12:51 p.m. ETSan Jose, Calif.After being ushered into the courtroom expecting a 9 a.m. start, we’ve now been waiting for nearly an hour. Kevin Downey and Jeffrey Schenk, the lead lawyers for Ms. Holmes and the prosecution, respectively, are not here. Nor are Ms. Holmes, Judge Edward Davila and the jury. Nov. 22, 2021, 12:09 p.m. ETNov. 22, 2021, 12:09 p.m. ETMs. Holmes heading into court on Monday.Credit…Jim Wilson/The New York TimesSince the trial’s opening statements, the legal team for Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the failed blood testing start-up Theranos, has made it clear how they plan to defend their client from charges of fraud.First, they have said: Ms. Holmes was a hardworking entrepreneur who believed her claims that Theranos’s technology was revolutionary and whose failure was not a crime. Second: Other Theranos employees, executives and investors should have known better. And third: Ms. Holmes was manipulated by Ramesh Balwani, who is known as Sunny and who was formerly Theranos’s chief operating officer and Ms. Holmes’s boyfriend. “She did her level best, day in, day out, to make Theranos successful, and she genuinely, deeply believed it would be successful,” Lance Wade, one of Ms. Holmes’s lawyers, said during opening statements.Theranos, which had been hailed as a successful Silicon Valley start-up, collapsed in scandal and shut down in 2018 after the company’s technology was shown to not work.Over the first 11 weeks of the trial, Ms. Holmes’s lawyers have repeatedly pushed the first two points of their defense. They have sought to undercut testimony from lab employees by pointing to their advanced degrees and comparing that to Ms. Holmes, who dropped out of Stanford University. They have also attacked investors’ credibility by detailing their lack of due diligence. As Ms. Holmes, 37, takes the stand for a second day, she may point the finger at Mr. Balwani. In court filings, she has said that Mr. Balwani, 55, was emotionally abusive and controlling during their relationship. Mr. Balwani, who will stand trial next year, has denied the allegations. Both have pleaded not guilty.Because Ms. Holmes and Mr. Balwani kept their relationship secret while they worked at Theranos, jurors have heard very little about their interactions. Ms. Holmes’s testimony will likely be jurors’ first real insight into the inner workings of the relationship. Read more Nov. 22, 2021, 12:05 p.m. ETNov. 22, 2021, 12:05 p.m. ETSan Jose, Calif.Ms. Holmes arrived hand-in-hand with her mother, Noel Holmes. She was also accompanied by her partner, Billy Evans, and various other members of her entourage, including two who arrived before 4 a.m. to wait in line with the rest of the public. Nov. 22, 2021, 12:01 p.m. ETNov. 22, 2021, 12:01 p.m. ETSan Jose, Calif.Both the courtroom and an overflow room are packed with spectators who arrived well before dawn. The courtroom is quiet as reporters pull out their laptops and everyone waits for testimony to start. Nov. 22, 2021, 11:59 a.m. ETNov. 22, 2021, 11:59 a.m. ETSan Jose, Calif.After waiting outside for hours, spectators have now filed into the courtroom for the second day of Elizabeth Holmes testifying in self-defense. (Because the proceedings are not live-streamed, standing in line is the only way to secure a spot inside.) Ms. Holmes, wearing a royal blue dress, has arr …

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