Less than three years before Elon Musk chose him to be part of a major effort to change the U.S. government, Edward Coristine was at the center of a big argument at the cybersecurity company where he was an intern. At the time, Coristine was just 17 years old, and two executives at the Arizona-based firm were debating whether he should be allowed to stay.
The problem was that Coristine was suspected of leaking company secrets to a competitor. One frustrated executive questioned the company’s CEO, saying, “You’re willing to risk our entire network to a 17-year-old? Are you for real right now?”
CNN reviewed a recording of that conversation, where Path Network CEO Marshal Webb defended his decision to keep Coristine. Webb argued that letting him stay would prevent him from becoming “an enemy” or from “running amok” with any company information he might have taken. However, he also set limits, making sure Coristine wouldn’t have access to “anything that’s really sensitive.”
That was back in 2022.
Today, Coristine is 19 years old and now plays a role in Musk’s controversial plan to reshape the federal government. He holds the title of “senior advisor” and has access to agencies like Homeland Security, FEMA, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
It is unclear what exactly Coristine’s job involves, but concerns have been raised about whether someone so young and with limited experience should have access to sensitive government data. Some experts are also questioning whether Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the division Coristine works under, is following all security rules.
“The federal government has more data on American citizens than almost any other institution, and so if we’re going to just remove the guardrails that protect that data, there’s no saying which actors may gain access to that,” said Nick Bednar, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School. “That data is very valuable to know where people have invested their money, to know their social security numbers, their bank account information.”
When CNN reached out for comment, the Department of Homeland Security and CISA referred the request to DOGE, which did not respond. Coristine also did not respond to CNN’s request, but at the time of his firing from Path Network, he had posted on Discord that he had done “nothing contractually wrong,” according to Bloomberg.
Path Network previously confirmed that Coristine was fired for leaking company information, but when asked for comment on Friday, they declined to say more.
Kyan Gomes, the Director of Operations at a Path Network subsidiary, originally opposed keeping Coristine on after he was suspected of leaking data. However, he later agreed with the decision to let him stay for a short time. “After apologies and somewhat of a begging nature, Edward was brought back on a sympathetic level as well as a protective level for us as a company,” Gomes said in a statement to CNN. He explained that the company thought it would be safer to keep Coristine on temporarily so they could figure out exactly what information he had leaked without giving him further access to sensitive data. “Once we came to the conclusion that we received all the information we needed, Path proceeded with the termination,” he said.
DOGE’s Access to the Nation’s Most Sensitive Data
Last month, Musk’s DOGE team gained access to some of the most sensitive data in the country as they worked on cutting federal spending. In recent weeks, Musk’s associates have visited multiple government agencies, including Veterans Affairs and the Department of Energy, and have reportedly sought access to Social Security data, IRS systems, and Treasury Department records.
Despite having access to so much information, DOGE operates without oversight from Congress and has not been open about who it employs. Some of the names of its employees have been revealed through news reports, but federal workers have said that DOGE associates sometimes refuse to identify themselves in meetings.
Democratic lawmakers have demanded answers from the White House about who is working for DOGE. Earlier this month, they wrote: “No information has been provided to Congress or the public as to who has been formally hired under DOGE, under what authority or regulations DOGE is operating, or how DOGE is vetting and monitoring its staff and representatives before providing them seemingly unfettered access to classified materials and Americans’ personal information.”
Gomes, who worked with Coristine in the past, believes Coristine should not have access to sensitive government data. “While I do not know exactly what he has access to, DOGE as a whole has been accessing extremely sensitive information,” he said.
The Penalty for Consorting with the Enemy
Coristine’s actions at Path Network were exposed through screenshots of Discord chats and secretly recorded company meetings. Disgruntled employees, some of whom claimed the company owed them money, uploaded these materials to a public website.
These records reveal that Path Network had a chaotic and undisciplined work environment.
For example, in one recorded meeting just before Coristine’s internship started, an intoxicated employee was heard threatening to fight his coworkers. Encouraged by his colleagues, the employee—who was drinking White Claws, bragging about shaving every day, and showing off his Prada cologne—punched holes in the wall. Later, he turned on his webcam to display hundred-dollar bills scattered across the floor.
At one point, he summed up his own behavior by saying: “All I can say is I’m a fking God. I’m a fking alpha.”
In other conversations, employees discussed Coristine’s alleged leaking of company data. One executive wrote in a team chat: “Edward has been terminated for leaking internal information to the competitors. This is unacceptable and there is zero tolerance for this.”
Path’s CEO responded with a harsh comment: “The penalty for consorting with the enemy.”
Less than two months after his firing, Coristine himself bragged in an online chatroom that he still had access to Path Network’s systems.
“I had access to all the game hosting machines for months after termination 🤣🤣🤣,” he wrote in a Discord channel.
When the company hired a replacement for Coristine in the summer of 2022, the CEO instructed staff to greet the new hire with an ominous message:
“I hope you won’t be liquidated like your predecessor.”
