Edward Coristine, 19, is a member of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). According to Bloomberg , Coristine was fired from his internship position at data security company Path Network in 2022 for leaking information to a competitor. “ This is unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” a company executive said in a text message.

After the incident, Coristine bragged on Discord that he still had access to the Path Network server, although he did not take advantage of it. He also denied breaching his contract while working for his former company.

Some of Coristine's online friends and former colleagues expressed surprise that their friend was included in one of the senior teams in President Donald Trump's administration.

The 2022 incident raises questions about how Coristine got the job and how he would handle sensitive information.

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Edward Coristine, one of Elon Musk's staff members in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Photo: Reddit

Regarding the DOGE team, Senator Ron Wyden – a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee – expressed concern that the group could access systems that control social security payments, health care, and other important federal programs.

He called it a “national security nightmare.” New details have only made him more concerned.

Earlier this week, Wyden and other Democrats on the committee asked White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles to explain how DOGE members were investigated and what the administration is doing to ensure the systems and records they accessed are not leaked.

All DOGE employees under Musk are government employees, a White House official said, adding that their hiring is in compliance with federal law and they are not outside consultants.

The person admitted that some government employees viewed DOGE's activities as "disruptive," but that it was a necessary effort to carry out Mr. Trump's vision.

According to Bloomberg sources, Coristine — who also interned at Musk’s Neuralink — is part of DOGE’s core team that is collecting data sets on employees, contractors, and government programs.

For example, in a meeting with USAID, Coristine and his colleagues discussed how to use that data to replace government workers with AI and train chatbots to do the job.

Coristine frequently posted on Discord and the messaging app Telegram in 2021 and 2022, discussing Path Network, programmer stories and even using vulgar language, according to Bloomberg . On Telegram, he was said to be looking for tools to attack the network.

Two U.S. law enforcement officials who investigate cybercrime said they had been monitoring chat rooms Coristine and others participated in for at least a year. They became interested in Coristine while investigating a hacker he had been communicating with in the chat room.

“Looking for a strong and stable L7,” Coristine (nicknamed JoeyCrafter) wrote in a November 2022 message. It refers to a type of cyberattack that takes down a website with a large amount of traffic.

DOGE's moves at federal agencies have once again put the spotlight on the unconventional way Musk, the world's richest billionaire, operates.

Coristine’s online posts and scandalous past have raised concerns about the investigation into the DOGE team, which the Trump administration has not provided details about.

Another member of the group resigned after racist social media posts were discovered, according to the Wall Street Journal .

Another online acquaintance of Coristine said he spent much of his teenage years online. By age 17, he had registered at least three limited liability companies, including Mistdeck LLC, DiamondCDN LLC, and Tesla.Sexy LLC.

He also did typical teenage jobs like working as a warehouse worker at his father's popcorn company.

JoeyCrafter is a member of the Telegram groups “Kiwi Farms Christmas Chat” and “Kiwi Farms 100% Real No Fake No Virus”. Both are related to forums that are notorious for harassment campaigns.

Typically, it will share a target's personal information, encourage others to harass the target online, in person, over the phone, or falsely alert the police about a violent incident, shooting, etc.

(According to Bloomberg)