Reporter Carreyrou allowed to attend Elizabeth Holmes trial

Former Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou is now allowed to sit in on the trial of former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, whose defense team had put him down as a potential witness, reports Adam Lashinsky of Business Insider.

Lashinsky reports, ” In his podcast, ‘Bad Blood: The Final Chapter,’ he is an unapologetic antagonist of Holmes, focusing on the voluminous evidence of her guilt and her efforts to evade accountability.

“In return, Holmes’ lawyers exacted a bit of revenge on Carreyrou. By adding him to their list of possible witnesses, they subjected him to a gag order that prevented him from discussing the case with anyone but his lawyer and barred him from even attending the trial when other ‘fact witnesses’ were testifying. That was a bitter pill for a reporter who was missing out on the coda of his career-defining story.

“But Carreyrou, always pugnacious in his reporting, fought back in court as well. He filed a motion requesting an exemption from the gag order and his courtroom ban, based on his First Amendment rights as a journalist. His lawyer’s brief noted that Carreyrou was the only reporter on the Holmes witness list, and that the defense hadn’t subpoenaed him to testify. Citing page after page of case law, the brief sniped at Holmes: ‘Other courts, when faced with such a cynical ruse, have rightly rejected it in favor of reporters’ First Amendment interests.’

“It’s plainly laughable that Holmes’ lawyers would call Carreyrou to testify. Whatever question marks they might hope to place on his reporting would pale in comparison with the mountain of embarrassing evidence the prosecution would elicit from him on cross-examination. A magistrate judge, Nathanael Cousins, held a hearing Thursday to settle the issue. He tried to seek a compromise, asking both sides to consider declaring Carreyrou an expert witness rather than a fact witness, which would permit him to attend the trial. But the defense refused to change its position.

“In the end, Carreyrou won a resounding victory. In his ruling from the bench, Cousins noted Carreyrou’s ‘centrality’ to the case and praised him for ‘providing a public service’ with his reporting. He lifted both the gag order and the courtroom ban, allowing Carreyrou to attend the proceedings as he sees fit.”

Read more here.