Big Balls Leaves, But Project 2025's Surveillance State Remains

While Edward Coristine's flashy exit grabs headlines, Project 2025 architect Russell Vought now controls America's surveillance infrastructure through constitutional authority

Edward Coristine's resignation from DOGE made for perfect tabloid fodder. The 19-year-old who branded himself "Big Balls" on LinkedIn walked away from his government role after just one month, adding to the chaos surrounding Elon Musk's cost-cutting operation. News outlets fixated on his youth, his unconventional online persona, and his brief tenure as a federal employee.

But Coristine's departure obscures three far more significant realities. First, Coristine was never just a flashy teenager – he's a cyber hacker with connections to organized crime networks and a grandfather who was a KGB agent. Second, Musk's systematic placement of loyalists throughout the federal government remains intact, with twenty operatives still embedded across critical agencies. Third, and most dangerously, DOGE has completed its federal data harvesting phase and now transitions to integrating government databases with private sector surveillance platforms for mass deployment.

The real story isn't one teenager's exit. It's the maturation of America's surveillance apparatus from corporate experiment to operational totalitarian system.

All Encompassing Surveillance State

A schematic reveals the scope of DOGE’S Surveillance State architecture

The Coristine Cover-Up

Edward Coristine's background reveals systematic security failures that enabled foreign-connected operatives to access America's most sensitive systems. The grandson of Valery Martynov, a KGB agent who spied for the United States before being executed by Soviet intelligence, Coristine brought serious security risks that were deliberately ignored.

His employment history reads like a counter-intelligence nightmare. Previously fired from a cybersecurity company for providing confidential documents to competitors, Coristine operated Telegram accounts soliciting hacking services and founded companies using Russian-registered domains. Despite this background, he gained access to USAID, the Department of Homeland Security, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the State Department.

Brain security expert Brian Krebs documented Coristine's connections to "The Com," a cybercriminal network, and his provision of technical support to EGodly, a cybercrime group. His online footprint would disqualify him from any legitimate security clearance, yet DOGE granted him "God mode" access to federal systems.

Coristine's resignation removes the most visible security liability while leaving the surveillance infrastructure intact. His departure provides cover for the more serious operatives who continue building America's digital panopticon.

The Embedded Network Expands

While headlines focused on Big Balls, Musk's government network has systematically expanded its reach. Sam Corcos, CEO of health-tech startup Levels, exemplifies the sophistication of this operation. Embedded within the Treasury Department's DOGE team, Corcos spearheaded efforts to retrieve detailed taxpayer and vendor information from the IRS through an "omnibus" agreement that would grant multiple government agencies unprecedented access to personal financial data.

The operation's scope extends beyond traditional corporate influence. Corcos's wife, Varvara Russkova Corcos, previously worked at GVA Capital, a venture capital front for Suleyman Kerimov, a sanctioned Russian oligarch and close Putin ally. This connection provides potential backdoor access to American financial intelligence through family networks that bypass traditional counterintelligence screening.

The twenty Musk loyalists embedded across federal agencies now occupy critical nodes throughout the surveillance ecosystem. They share professional histories, personal relationships, and loyalty to their former employer's expanding data empire. Their positions enable coordinated intelligence gathering across agencies that historically operated in isolation.

Katie Miller's transition from DOGE spokesperson to private sector reveals the sophisticated nature of these networks. Her exit alongside Musk maintains communication channels through her connection to Stephen Miller, providing indirect access to White House decision-making even after official departures. The network operates across public and private sectors, maintaining influence regardless of formal employment status.

Vought's Constitutional Takeover

More significantly, Russell Vought now controls the entire surveillance operation. The OMB Director and key architect of Project 2025 has been quietly coordinating DOGE's transition while media attention focused on Musk's theatrics and Coristine's departure. Multiple reports indicate Vought is poised to formally assume DOGE leadership, bringing constitutional authority to what began as Musk's improvised corporate network.

Vought's ascendancy transforms corporate surveillance into systematic implementation of his Project 2025 blueprint. He wrote in the Heritage Foundation's 900-page authoritarian framework that OMB should be "powerful enough to override implementing agencies' bureaucracies" and serve as "the best, most comprehensive approximation of the President's mind." Through the federal apportionment process, he can now legally circumvent Congressional oversight entirely, impounding funding for agencies that resist surveillance integration.

What makes this transition particularly dangerous is the complete absence of oversight. No congressional committee tracks these cross-appointments. No ethics board monitors potential conflicts of interest. No inspector general investigates the coordination between corporate surveillance networks and government intelligence operations. Vought's constitutional authority through OMB transforms these capabilities from corporate overreach into systematic government surveillance operating beyond traditional legal constraints.

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