A 19-year-old man known as “Big Balls” who played a key role in the DOGE initiative to shrink the size of government was assaulted over the weekend in Washington, according to city police.
Edward Coristine, who still works for the government, was assaulted by approximately 10 juveniles near Dupont Circle about 3 a.m. Sunday, according to a police report obtained by POLITICO.
Police arrested two 15-year olds as they attempted to flee the scene. A black iPhone 16 valued at $1,000 was also reported stolen during the incident, according to the report.
President Donald Trump posted a photo on his social media platform showing a shirtless Coristine with what appeared to be blood spattered on his face, body and pants. He called for a change in the law so that the juveniles who attacked him could be charged as adults.
“Perhaps it should have been done a long time ago, then this incredible young man, and so many others, would not have had to go through the horrors of Violent Crime,” he wrote.
Coristine told the officers the assailants approached him outside his vehicle while he was with a woman — identified in the report as his “significant other” — and made a comment about taking it, according to the report. He told officers that he got the other person into the vehicle just before he was attacked.
A fellow DOGE staffer, Marko Elez, took the photo of the bloodied Coristine after the attack.
Coristine, who now works for the Social Security Administration, has held key roles in DOGE’s efforts, including its move to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development. He also worked within the Department of Homeland Security, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and Transportation Security Administration, helping on initiatives, including Gold Cards.
Elon Musk, the former head of DOGE, claimed on X that “a gang of about a dozen young men tried to assault a woman in her car at night in DC,” and that “A @Doge team member saw what was happening, ran to defend her and was severely beaten to the point of concussion, but he saved her.”
Trump has repeatedly pushed to federalize the nation’s capital following the surge in crime that occurred during the Covid pandemic, which has since cooled down.
The White House declined to comment, instead referring POLITICO to the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia. A spokesperson for the office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Coristine did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
