Former US defense secretary testifies in Holmes fraud trial

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

Mattis' appearance came 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 that her startup, Theranos, had developed a technology that could scan for an array of potential health problems with just a few drops of blood. Existing tests generally each require a vial of blood.

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

A few months after retiring from the military in 2013, Mattis joined the Theranos board and also invested some of his own savings in the startup. In 2017, Mattis joined the cabinet of President Donald Trump.

Mattis, nicknamed “Mad Dog," while 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.

Holmes assured him that the Edison would be able to scan for health problems with just a finger prick — a concept that Mattis 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 we can get it in the theater soon to test it," Mattis...