Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old techie, has landed a “senior adviser” role in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Technology, per The Washington Post.
The “Big B*lls” DOGE guy is part of a group of young programmers associated with Elon Musk helmed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—a team reportedly tasked with forcing federal workers to justify their jobs through one-on-one meetings.
Who is Edward Coristine?
Coristine was a freshman engineering major at Northeastern University just a year ago before dropping out to join Musk’s team. His father, Charles Coristine, is a businessman who turned the struggling snack company LesserEvil into a $100 million-a-year enterprise.
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A WIRED report revealed that Coristine has actively participated in DOGE meetings where government workers were required to review their own code and justify their employment. He currently holds official roles in both DOGE and the Office of Personnel Management.
Coristine’s appointment sparks debate in Washington
Coristine, who had worked briefly for Musk’s brain chip start-up Neuralink, was recently put on post to the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Technology, a critical hub for data that can be sensitive or nonsensitive. Coristine has drawn Washington’s attention for his edgy online personality and his lack of experience in the new, federal positions, including stints at the U.S. DOGE Service and the Office of Personnel Management.
Bloomberg reported he was fired from an internship at Path Network in 2022 after an internal investigation alleged that he leaked sensitive information to a competitor. Though Coristine has denied the allegations, an anonymous official warned that his proximity to classified material is dangerous.
An official told The Washington Post that the 2022 leak proves his proximity to sensitive material is “dangerous.”
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Now, some fear that Coristine’s role in the Bureau of Diplomatic Technology could allow him to gain “unauthorized access to classified material” or gather “compromising information on other countries and foreign activities”
Another young techie-Luke Farritor, 23, a fellow DOGE engineer, is also listed as part of the Bureau of Diplomatic Technology, per The Washington Post.
