Musk, Trump Prosecutor Targeting People Who Divulge Identities of DOGE Staff

As a cabal of Elon Musk flunkies works around the clock to infiltrate and sabotage various federal agencies on behalf of President Donald Trump, the world’s richest man — just named a special government employee — is warning along with Washington allies that the consequences for publicly naming these staffers may be severe.

On Sunday, with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) seizing control of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the billionaire vowing to eliminate it altogether, Wired reported the identities of six software engineers with jobs in his wrecking crew. They span in age from 19 to their mid-twenties and have minimal government experience (if any), though most have connections to either Musk or his onetime PayPal colleague Peter Thiel, another right-wing Silicon Valley billionaire whose data analytics firm Palantir holds valuable U.S. defense contracts. They are Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran.

These young men have been involved in Musk’s sweeping efforts to gain access to the communication systems, personnel files, and other sensitive information at agencies including USAID, the Treasury Department, the Office of Personnel Management, the General Services Administration, and the Small Business Administration, in certain cases freezing employees out of their work accounts and putting others on leave. Some DOGE and State Department representatives were at first barred from USAID headquarters in Washington on Friday night and threatened to call U.S. Marshals if they were not given entry; security guards eventually relented. On Monday, the agency’s staffers were locked out of the building, triggering a protest outside that was attended by Democratic lawmakers.

Musk, who professes to champion free speech but has typically clamped down on content shared via his social media platform X if he doesn’t want it publicly disseminated, has already moved to silence those who share the names of DOGE team members carrying out his orders to wrest control of the levers of federal spending. On Sunday night, after Democrats of the House Foreign Affairs Committee posted on X that “DOGE’s attempt to bulldoze its way into classified systems is part of a broader agenda to dismantle U.S. foreign aid and soft power,” another user on the site, with a paid verified account, replied, “Here’s a list of techies on the ground helping Musk gaining and using access to the US Treasury payment system,” and named the six men identified in the Wired article. Musk shot back, “You have committed a crime,” though there is no law against reporting the names of individuals with a government-affiliated task force. The post was then removed and replaced with a message saying that it had violated X rules. Then the account itself was suspended.

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On Monday, a key Trump appointee, interim District of Columbia U.S. Attorney Ed Martin, signaled that he was prepared to back Musk’s censorship with the resources of the Justice Department. “Dear @elon,” he wrote on X, tagging an account that does not belong to the site owner. “Please see this important letter. We will not tolerate threats against DOGE workers or law-breaking by the disgruntled. All the best. Ed Martin.”

The extraordinary letter the attorney shared stated in part: “I recognize that some of the staff at DOGE has been targeted publicly. At this time, I ask that you utilize me and my staff to assist in protecting the DOGE work and the DOGE workers. Any threats, confrontations, or other actions in any way that impact their work may break numerous laws.”

The letter does not cite any specific laws but continues, “Let me assure you of this: we will pursue any and all legal action against anyone who impedes your work or threatens your people.” It also warns Musk to “be very aware that there are those who are acting against our American people in every way.” Musk quoted the post and acknowledged the letter, writing, “Thank you, receipt via X acknowledged.”

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Martin is a Trump hardliner who on Friday fired some 30 federal prosecutors in his office who had worked on Jan. 6 Capitol riot cases against hundreds of defendants and convicted criminals, all of whom were pardoned by Trump the day he took office for a second term. He has espoused conspiracy theories about the 2020 election results and, until stepping into his current role, maintained a Substack newsletter called “Ed Martin’s Pro-America Report,” in which he has praised Trump’s idea about annexing the territory of Greenland as a continuation of manifest destiny, wished a happy birthday to far-right ideologue Pat Buchanan, and argued for blaming last month’s deadly wildfires in Los Angeles on Democrats.

As the names of DOGE staffers circulated from Sunday through the beginning of the week, so did a meme that includes labeled pictures of four of the men: Bobba, Farritor, Coristine, and Shaotran. “Who are these little boys?” reads a caption above their photos. “And why are they in charge of our money?” The meme observes that the Treasury Department is responsible for Social Security, Medicare, grants, and federal salaries, and “is usually run by grown-ups.” It concludes, “Mamas, come get your babies out of our government.”

While obviously critical of DOGE, the image was also shared by at least one Musk supporter, who commented on X, “I didn’t know this was an option, amazing development.” Musk himself replied, “Some real aces in @DOGE,” apparently unbothered that this user had shared not only the names of the staffers but their photos.

It’s too late, anyway, to keep these employees anonymous, and information tends to spread all the faster online if someone makes a concerted effort to suppress it (see: the Streisand Effect). Still, Musk and Martin have said in no uncertain terms that they are willing to treat the exposure of DOGE operatives as a potentially criminal offense, and take accordingly punitive measures. As for whether the organization will be held accountable for its own allegedly illegal actions, well, don’t hold your breath.