‘What could possibly go wrong?’: 19-year-old DOGE worker and alleged leaker made ‘senior advisor’ in State Department
DOGE employee Edward Coristine, a teenage boy who goes by “Big Balls” online and once allegedly lost an internship for leaking information to a competitor, has been made a “senior advisor” in the State Department.
Under the leadership of Elon Musk, DOGE, an unofficial government department, has been swiftly infiltrating every corner of the government. From USAID to the U.S. Treasury to the State Department, Musk has been accessing sensitive information and instating his DOGE minions, though it’s unclear if these staffers even passed standard background checks. It’s also suspected that their access to classified government information is illegal, with one judge revoking their access to the Treasury and ordering them to destroy any data they downloaded. Nonetheless, the DOGE staffers, who initially tried to hide their identities, are still being appointed to positions of power.
25-year-old Marko Elez was appointed to the U.S. Treasury, where insiders allege he had admin access to federal pay systems. He briefly resigned after his racist and hateful social media posts resurfaced. Despite his extreme views, Musk decided he was a good fit for accessing classified government information and immediately reinstated him at DOGE. Meanwhile, another young man was given access to the Energy Department’s IT systems, putting him unsettlingly close to the department that manages the nation’s nuclear arsenal. To top it off, Coristine is now a “senior advisor” in the State Department and Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Who is the 19-year-old “senior advisor” in the State Department?
It was already concerning enough that Musk’s DOGE staffers were being given access to sensitive government information despite questionable security clearances. However, Musk keeps taking their roles even further as Coristine is now listed as a “senior advisor” at the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Technology and the DHS. The title is quite perplexing as it indicates a very high level of tenure and experience. It’s a title one would expect of someone who has worked in and risen through the ranks of the government for years but not of a high school graduate with a few internships on his resume.
Coristine is a Northeastern University dropout who once worked as an intern at Neuralink. According to Bloomberg, in 2022, he interned at a cybersecurity firm and was fired after being accused of leaking confidential information to a competitor. It’s unclear if Musk was aware of this allegation when hiring Coristine. One would assume such an allegation would make him ineligible for a position that gives him access to classified government information. Instead, he has been given a new role in the State Department, where he may have access to the U.S. diplomatic service’s centralized I.T. department and sensitive information about American agents worldwide.
TikTok reporter Aaron Parnas also covered the news. He mentioned that Coristine is known online by the nickname “Big Balls,” a strong testimony to his juvenile tendencies. In the comments on his video, user Double Donkey (DDJ) wrote, “His name is BigBalls, what could possibly go wrong?”
According to WIRED, Coristine once worked for a company known for hiring “reformed blackhat hackers.” He was also tied to a Telegram handle seeking third-party cyberattack services. The teen has also established multiple companies, including one that owns a few Russian-registered domains. Needless to say, his history makes it highly unlikely he would pass the background check necessary for security clearance. It remains unclear what criteria Musk used to determine he was a good fit for DOGE and had the experience and expertise required to be named “senior advisor” in two crucial government departments.
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