It seems nobody associated with Trump is clean. [whispers] But we shouldn't talk about Mattis[/whispers]
https://www.vox.com/2018/3/16/17124288/mattis-theranos-board-trump
https://www.vox.com/2018/3/16/17124288/mattis-theranos-board-trump
But by the time Mattis was selected to serve as Trump’s secretary of defense in January 2017, the basic scope of the fraud was already well-known to the public thanks to diligent journalistic work. So was the fact that Mattis was not only earning $150,000 a year for his service on the Theranos board but was also involved in pro-Theranos advocacy while on active military duty.
He duly resigned from Theranos on January 5, 2017 — by which time the company was already commonly described as “embroiled in scandal” by press reports — but, remarkably, the whole affair didn’t come up at his confirmation hearings.
It’s not exactly rare for members of a corporate board of directors to serve as window dressing with no actual involvement in or knowledge of a company’s operations, so the mere fact that the whole company was a giant scam doesn’t necessarily reflect any action on Mattis’s part. That said, at least in theory, directors are supposed to do something, and serving as window dressing for a massive fraud is the kind of thing that normally reflects poorly on a person’s reputation.
What’s more, as Paul Szoldra writes at Task and Purpose, pre-retirement Mattis genuinely seems to have been actively involved in trying to help Theranos bypass the regulatory process:
“I would very much appreciate your help in getting this information corrected with the regulatory agencies,” Holmes wrote in an email to Mattis, also obtained by the Post. “Since this misinformation came from within DoD, it will be invaluable if this information is formally corrected by the right people in DoD.”
The general then forwarded the email chain on and asked, “how do we overcome this new obstacle?”
“I have tried to get this device tested in theater asap, legally and ethically,” Mattis wrote. “This appears to be relatively straight-forward yet we’re a year into this and not yet deployed.”
Yet even with the SEC now throwing the book at the company, nobody in Congress is interested in asking Mattis what, exactly, he knew about Theranos and when. And the worst thing about it is their inclination to treat him with kid gloves makes a lot of sense.
He duly resigned from Theranos on January 5, 2017 — by which time the company was already commonly described as “embroiled in scandal” by press reports — but, remarkably, the whole affair didn’t come up at his confirmation hearings.
It’s not exactly rare for members of a corporate board of directors to serve as window dressing with no actual involvement in or knowledge of a company’s operations, so the mere fact that the whole company was a giant scam doesn’t necessarily reflect any action on Mattis’s part. That said, at least in theory, directors are supposed to do something, and serving as window dressing for a massive fraud is the kind of thing that normally reflects poorly on a person’s reputation.
What’s more, as Paul Szoldra writes at Task and Purpose, pre-retirement Mattis genuinely seems to have been actively involved in trying to help Theranos bypass the regulatory process:
“I would very much appreciate your help in getting this information corrected with the regulatory agencies,” Holmes wrote in an email to Mattis, also obtained by the Post. “Since this misinformation came from within DoD, it will be invaluable if this information is formally corrected by the right people in DoD.”
The general then forwarded the email chain on and asked, “how do we overcome this new obstacle?”
“I have tried to get this device tested in theater asap, legally and ethically,” Mattis wrote. “This appears to be relatively straight-forward yet we’re a year into this and not yet deployed.”
Yet even with the SEC now throwing the book at the company, nobody in Congress is interested in asking Mattis what, exactly, he knew about Theranos and when. And the worst thing about it is their inclination to treat him with kid gloves makes a lot of sense.