Convicted health care fraudster Elizabeth Holmes is being held up as a "perfect martyr" by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s "Make America Healthy Again" movement.
MAHA influencers have taken up the Theranos founder's cause, with widely read mommy blogger Jessica Reed Kraus writing a highly sympathetic Substack post titled “Elizabeth Holmes’ Redemption Arc Loading,” and longevity-obsessed entrepreneur Bryan Johnson striking up an online acquaintance with the imprisoned biotech CEO, reported Politico.
“My crew joked that if Holmes emerged today, she would be counted among the innovators MAHA endorses," Kraus said.
Holmes famously – and falsely – claimed that Theranos’ blood-testing technology delivered faster and more accurate results that existing methods, but the product never actually worked and she was found guilty of defrauding investors of hundreds of millions of dollars and sentenced to 11 years in prison.
“My audience is interested in learning more about your case – all that’s been overlooked and twisted," Kraus wrote in response to Holmes' praise for her "beautifully written article." "Based on the research I’ve done, it’s definitely deserving of fresh eyes and a whole new series of investigation, which I’m committed too. Stay tuned!”
Kraus polled her readers in June and found 81 percent of them believed her sentence was unfair, and Stanford historian Kathryn Olivarius, who's writing a book on the MAHA movement, isn't surprised that Kraus and other figures in that faction of Donald Trump's support have embraced her.
“She’s such a perfect martyr for this," Olivarius said. "It feels almost inevitable that this would happen. There’s something in her story for everyone in this movement… You can always frame it so that you know she’s somehow being victimized here.”
Holmes can be portrayed as a victim of Big Pharma for those who believe conspiracy theories about major health corporations, while so-called "trad wives" may see her as just a mom trying to take care of her family, and Olivarius said those narratives resembled tactics she used to promote herself and Theranos.
“She was seeking to always tell a story to investors or to board members or to regulators, etc.," Olivarius said. "This is a tactic that she herself would recognize.”
Holmes’ partner Billy Evans, who's the father of her children, recently launched an artificial intelligence-related health startup that could benefit from policies made by Kennedy's Department of Health and Human Services, and Holmes might have even more practical reasons to align herself with MAHA.
"The Free Holmes cause has also been picked up by Lila Rose, a prominent anti-abortion activist, who called Holmes’s sentence 'unjust,'" reported The Bulwark's Will Sommer last week. "As of the publication of this newsletter, Holmes’s catching a Trump pardon in 2025 enjoys just 5 percent odds on Polymarket. But that’s larger than NXIVM cult founder and convicted sex trafficker Keith Raniere, who has received no betting activity at all."
Holmes began posting on X in August despite being incarcerated, and she may be dictating her comments to someone on the outside, but she reached out directly to Kennedy shortly after Kraus' article inflamed interest in her case.
“Urgently fortunately we have RFK who is willing to question existing narratives and is not on the take," she replied to a since-deleted comment on X.