00:00All right, now to some developing news. We're following in the South Bay. That's where Theranos's founder Elizabeth Holmes has taken the stand late today in her own defense. KTVU's Evan Cernofsky has been following the federal fraud trial as it continues to unfold. And Evan, the room I can imagine was hanging on every word that Holmes had to say. You bet they were, Alex, and this has become the pitch of Elizabeth Holmes' life. We've heard over and over again about all those meetings she had with
00:29investors. Well, now she's on the witness stand in her own defense. She's charged with what is now nine counts of fraud. And what has been a case about papers and about emails leading up to this is all of a sudden shifting to this one witness, Elizabeth Holmes, the person at the center of this case. She began her testimony speaking in that famous baritone voice. There was a lot of questions. Was she going to have that voice? Wasn't she? She certainly did. And she began
00:59really talking in her testimony about her early days, how she formed this company while dropping out of Stanford. This is really the centerpiece of the defense here that this wasn't fraud. Instead, this was a company that simply failed. And one of the quotes she gave in the early inception of that discussing working in micro fluidics, she said, quote, I started working all the time.
01:26I was trying to meet people who could help me build this. And this, of course, this quote, helping build the company, as I said, is the centerpiece of the defense. Putting Elizabeth Holmes up there on the stand is really what the defense is going to shift all of this to.
01:45This 11 weeks of trial that we've had leading up to this point is very is not going to be noticed as much anymore. Frankly, our legal experts are telling us this case is going to come down to this.
01:56And we were anticipating this for months, actually, because attorneys had already signaled that they were going to going to put Elizabeth Holmes on the stand.
02:05We're actually waiting right now. We're anticipating Elizabeth and her family to walk out of that courtroom right now as they have every single day of this trial. And also this came as the prosecution rested its case. Today, the prosecution rested and we've already seen Elizabeth.
02:24So what's been a long and protracted trial will likely start wrapping up ideally for the jury, especially before Christmas. Alex. All right. So Evan, from what I'm hearing, this was not entirely unexpected that Elizabeth Holmes would take the stand.
02:39There was some talk about this, but obviously anytime you put your own defendant on the stand, a defendant takes the stand, there's risk involved.
02:47That's right. There's a lot of risk involved. And Elizabeth Holmes took the stand with really one hour to go in testimony to in today's proceeding. And as you said, with the risk involved, now that she's on the stand and now that she's testifying in her own defense, that's going to open her up to cross examination from the prosecution.
03:09And Jeff Shank, the prosecutor here for the government, really put on an impressive cross examination on another witness who had been on the stand for the defense just moments before. So on Monday, Elizabeth Holmes will resume her testimony. And I can assure you, it will be quite a crowded scene here at the federal courthouse in San Jose. Back to you.
03:30A pivotal moment in this trial. No doubt about it. We will continue to follow the latest developments. Evan Cernofsky, live from the federal courthouse in San Jose. Evan, thank you.
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