A Former DOGE Employee Known as Big Balls Was Attacked in DC — Here's What We Know

Although there wasn't much to laugh about when it came to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a few chuckles could still be found. DOGE tore through the federal government, which reportedly contributed to the loss of tens of thousands of jobs, per NPR. One of the more horrifying results of this alleged attempt at efficiency was the shuttering of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Where is the comedy, you ask? It came in the form of a DOGE employee who was nicknamed Big Balls. His real name is Edward Coristine, and the 19-year-old formerly worked in the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Technology. He told Fox News's Jesse Watters that the name was just a funny joke he came up with on LinkedIn because people take themselves too seriously there. Speaking of serious issues, in August 2025, the employee formerly known as Big Balls was attacked. Here's what we know.

According to the Metropolitan Police, Coristine and one other person were hanging out in the early hours of Sunday, Aug. 3, when several individuals attempted to carjack his vehicle. While Coristine was allegedly being assaulted, an MPD cruiser pulled into the block. Two of the suspects, a 15-year-old juvenile male and a 15-year-old juvenile female, of Hyattsville Md., were immediately apprehended by police. Investigators are looking for any information about the remaining suspects who are at large.

The New York Times reported that Coristine said he was "surrounded and attacked by 10 young assailants." Coristine, who now works at the Social Security Administration, did not respond to a request for comment. Elon Musk commented on the situation via a post on X. He shared a screenshot of a Truth Social post from President Trump, then claimed that Coristine tried to save a young woman from being assaulted in her car by a "gang of about a dozen young men." This has not been confirmed by the police.

The president's post on Truth Social said that Washington, D.C. is "totally out of control." He continued, "Local 'youths' and gang members, some only 14, 15, and 16 years old, are randomly attacking, mugging, maiming, and shooting innocent citizens, at the same time knowing that they will be almost immediately released." In January 2025, the Department of Justice said in a press release that violent crime in 2024 was down 35 percent from 2023, and was at the lowest it's been in over 30 years.

Trump threatened to change the law so that minors as young as 14 could be tried as adults in order to "lock them up for a long time." The president went on to say that if D.C. doesn't "get its act together," he will have "no choice but to take federal control of the city, and run this city how it should be run." A ton of steps would have to happen in order to come close to federalizing D.C., per Axios, but this president loves ignoring steps, so perhaps anything is possible.