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Doge employee ‘Big Balls’ has resigned, says White House official Doge employee ‘Big Balls’ has resigned, says White House official
(about 13 hours later)
One of Doge’s best-known workers Edward Coristine, 19, quits a month after his former boss Elon Musk’s departureOne of Doge’s best-known workers Edward Coristine, 19, quits a month after his former boss Elon Musk’s departure
One of the US so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) service’s best-known employees, 19-year-old Edward Coristine, has resigned from the US government, a White House official said on Tuesday, a month after the acrimonious departure of his former boss Elon Musk. Edward Coristine, whose nickname “Big Balls” made him one of the most publicized members of Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge), resigned from the US government this week. The 19-year-old technologist had worked at multiple agencies, most recently the Social Security Administration.
The White House official gave no further details on the move and Coristine did not immediately return an email seeking comment. Coristine’s youth and lack of professional experience were emblematic of a class of Doge staffers tasked with dismantling the federal government under orders from Musk, their de facto leader. The White House official gave no further details on the move and Coristine did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
Coristine worked at Musk’s brain connectivity company Neuralink before joining the tech billionaire as he led Doge established by the Trump administration earlier this year. Doge has overseen job cuts at almost every federal agency but is starting to see losses itself. Key Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, who was in charge of day-to-day running of Doge, has also left, along with others. The future of Doge and employees like Coristine has been an open question since Musk left the White House last month. Musk’s very public online feud with Donald Trump, which has now settled into an apparent detente, intensified uncertainty over whether controversial Doge staffers would remain part of the administration.
The White House has said that Doge’s mission will continue. Coristine became a source of public fascination and mockery earlier this year after Wired identified him as one of Doge’s young engineers and revealed he had gone by the online handle “Big Balls”. Musk and his supporters, by contrast, embraced Coristine, with the Tesla CEO bringing him on Fox News last month and promoting “Big Balls” memes on X.
Coristine’s youth and online moniker “Big Balls” became a pop-culture meme as Doge swept through the US government, seizing data and firing employees en masse. Despite only briefly working at Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink before joining Doge, Coristine parachuted into major government agencies. Last month, Reuters reported that Coristine was one of two Doge associates promoting the use of AI across the federal bureaucracy.
Last month, Reuters reported that Coristine was one of two Doge associates promoting the use of AI across the federal bureaucracy. Media outlets, including Wired which first reported his departure, revealed that Coristine had been active in a chat room popular with hackers and previously had been fired from a job following an alleged data leak. Coristine, like other Doge members, was followed by a shady online history. Media outlets, including Wired which first reported his departure, revealed that Coristine had been active in a chatroom popular with hackers and previously had been fired from a job following an alleged data leak. In March, Reuters reported that Coristine had provided tech support to a cybercrime gang that had bragged about trafficking in stolen data and harassing an FBI agent. Coristine was also fired from a previous internship at a cybersecurity firm for leaking secrets, Bloomberg reported.
In March, Reuters reported that Coristine had provided tech support to a cybercrime gang that had bragged about trafficking in stolen data and harassing an FBI agent. Among the agencies that Coristine worked at were Health and Human Services, the General Services Administration, the Social Security Administration, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency. Doge’s cuts during this time gutted public services and targeted tens of thousands of government workers with termination.
Beginning around 2022, while still in high school, Coristine ran a company called DiamondCDN that provided network services, according to corporate and digital records reviewed by Reuters and interviews with half a dozen former associates. Although the exact reasons behind Coristine’s departure are unclear, several other Doge staffers have also left since Musk stepped away from his government role. One of Musk’s top lieutenants, Steve Davis, left Doge last month after running its day to day operations. Investor Brad Smith, who oversaw cuts at Health and Human Services, also departed.
Among its users was a website run by a ring of cybercriminals operating under the name “EGodly”, according to digital records preserved by the internet intelligence firm DomainTools and the online cybersecurity tool Any.Run. A large number of Doge staffers remain spread throughout various agencies, however, and are continuing to implement cuts. Russell Vought, a top White House budget official and key player in the far-right Project 2025 policy manifesto, has taken on an increased role pushing for Doge’s mission since Musk left.
The digital records reviewed by Reuters showed the EGodly website, dataleak.fun, was tied to internet protocol addresses registered to DiamondCDN and other Coristine-owned entities between October 2022 and June 2023, and that some users attempting to access the site around that time would hit a DiamondCDN “security check”.
In 2023, EGodly boasted on its Telegram channel of hijacking phone numbers, breaking into unspecified law enforcement email accounts in Latin America and Eastern Europe, and cryptocurrency theft.
Early that year, the group distributed the personal details of an FBI agent who they said was investigating them, circulating his phone number, photographs of his house, and other private details on Telegram. Reuters contributed reporting
EGodly also posted an audio recording of an obscene prank call made to the agent’s phone and a video, shot from the inside of a car, of an unknown party driving by the agent’s house in Wilmington, Delaware, at night and screaming out the window: “EGodly says you’re a bitch!“
Reuters could not independently verify EGodly’s boasts of cybercriminal activity, including its claims to have hijacked phone numbers or infiltrated law enforcement emails. But it was able to authenticate the video by visiting the same Wilmington address and comparing the building to the one in the footage.
The FBI agent targeted by EGodly, who is now retired, told Reuters that the group had drawn law enforcement attention because of its connection to swatting, the dangerous practice of making hoax emergency calls to send armed officers swarming targeted addresses. The agent didn’t go into detail. Reuters is not identifying him out of concern for further harassment.
“These are bad folks,” the former agent said. “They’re not a pleasant group.”