In January, venture capitalist Sam Lessin playfully suggested on X that convicted fraudsterElizabeth Holmesshould start “a jailhouse venture fund.” The idea seemed preposterous. For Holmes, it was an invitation to chat.

Nearly four hours later, the Theranos founder replied directly to the Slow Ventures partner and his 100,000-plus followers on X, thanking him for “the kind words” and volunteering her prison address. “I was surprised,” admits Lessin.

It’s not uncommon for prisoners to plead their cases from the slammer (Barbara Walters built a career out of that). But as legacy media recedes, a growing cohort of famous felons are leveraging new media to rehab their images. Inmates including Sam Bankman-Fried andHarvey Weinsteinhave turned to such right-wing firebrands as Tucker Carlson andCandace Owensto present alternative narratives to their cases.Related StoriesNewsMAGA vs. MAGA: Who's Winning the Right Wing Media Meltdown?BusinessTikTok Says U.S. Service Now Fully Restored After Dayslong Outage Sparked by Cold Weather

Others are more tech-forward: Nicole Daedone — subject of the Netflix documentaryOrgasm Inc.and now awaiting sentencing in Brooklyn — an AI version of herself reading a message to her Instagram followers. And, increasingly, many are mounting charm offenses on X in the hopes of becoming MAGA darlings.

But these jailbirds aren’t using their own fingers to fire off missives or create clones. While civilians surf the world wide web like an information superhighway, one prominent lawyer compared inmates’ internet access to a one-lane dirt road. Since their computer privileges are highly restrictive, experts believe Holmes and others hand oversocial mediamanagement to advisers outside of prison.

“The reality is they have teams and people. They’re trying to keep their voices alive,” alleges ex-Congressman George Santos, whose seven-year sentence was commuted by President Trump. “I had nine people delegated to my account.”

Santos served fewer than 100 days behind bars. Rather than go full creator in his commutation push, the fabulist opted for a less viral form of media: newspaper op-eds, placing them inThe South Shore Press, a Long Island rag. “I didn’t want to put the onus on my family. They were working on other stuff on the back end,” he says. “So for me, that was more effective than Twitter.”

In May, Weinstein, who is locked up in Rikers, appeared on Owens’ podcast. It was an unlikely home for his first on-camera interview in almost a decade. (Owens has trafficked in antisemitic tropes, and Weinstein once accepted an award from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, telling the audience to “kick these guys in the ass,” referring to antisemites.)

But for canceled convicts, right-wing political podcasts are heterodox playgrounds, where their stories can go largely unchallenged. “The podcasts are willing to go above and beyond for us,” says PR whiz Juda Engelmayer, who reps Weinstein. “If we have a counter-narrative that in some way makes the prosecution look like they have been faulty, a lot of media won’t run it.”

It’s also a way for federal convicts to unleash Step One in the commutation playbook: drumming up support in MAGA World. In March, FTX founder Bankman-Fried appeared on Carlson’s podcast with the episode title, “Sam Bankman-Fried on Life in Prison With Diddy, and How Democrats Stole His Money and Betrayed Him.” It ultimately backfired.The New York Timeslater reported that Bankman-Fried was placed in solitary confinement because the crypto swindler violated the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ rules. He has yet to receive any support from Trump.

Source: Drudge Report