Edward Coristine, one of the United States’ Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) most known employees, given the moniker ‘Big Balls’, has resigned from the role, Reuters reported citing a White House official.
The 19-year-old’s resignation comes a month after tech billionaire Elon Musk exited his position as DOGE Chief in May, the report added. It was first reported by Wired.
No further details were shared by the White House, and Coristine had not replied to emailed queries till time of writing, Reuters added.
Sign of the times? DOGE to continue or collapse?
There has been a string of exits from DOGE after Elon Musk‘s departure from the government, raising doubts over the future of the department. Notably, Coristine’s exit comes after Elon Musk’s deputy Steve Davis also walked out of DOGE. Davis was in charge of the day-to-day running of DOGE.
The report noted that many others have also made exits, while the White House has stated that DOGE’s “mission will continue”.
Who is Edward Coristine?
Formerly an employee at Elon Musk’s brain chip company Neuralink, Coristine joined the world’s richest man at DOGE earlier this year when it was established by US President Donald Trump. His online moniker ‘Big Balls’ grabbed headlines and became a meme after DOGE began culling federal jobs en masse and slashing budgets.
Reuters in May cited two sources to report that that Coristine and other DOGE employee Kyle Schutt were promoting the use of artificial intelligence (AI), specifically Elon Musk owned xAI’s Grok, across the federal bureaucracy.
Notably, in April, Reuters reported that Democrats in the Republican-led House of Representatives Oversight Committee, had found that Coristine previously provided network infrastructure and tech support to a gang of cybercriminals. He had also had bragged about trafficking in stolen data and harassing an FBI agent.
The report added that Coristine’s activity in a chat room popular with hackers had also previously led to him being fired from a job due to an alleged data leak. The lawmakers had used these findings to push for “a full investigation into WHO is working for DOGE”.
(With inputs from Reuters)
