Who are the engineers behind Elon Musk's overhauling the US government infrastructure?
Alexandra Alper
Reuters
Elon Musk is relying on a coterie of young engineers with little government experience in his takeover of the U.S. Federal government infrastructure. Here are some details about three of them. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) declined to comment.
Gavin Kliger
Gavin Kliger, who lists his job on Linkedin as 'Special Advisor to the Director @ OPM' since January, graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 2020 with a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and boasting a 3.95 grade point average, according to the platform.
Kliger, pictured donning a "Make America Great Again" hat on his profile page on social media platform X, was most recently a senior Software Engineer at San Francisco, California-based AI Startup Databrinks and served in a similar role at Twitter in 2019, his Linkedin Profile shows.
His Substack features essays entitled 'The Curious Case of Matt Gaetz: How the Deep State Destroys its Enemies,' in which he describes Gaetz as 'a congressman who was never charged with a crime... forced from office through the coordinated efforts of the intelligence community, the DOJ, establishment Republicans, and a media complex more interested in headlines than truth," a scenario that echoes Trump's own travails, he claims.
Another essay, called 'Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense: The Warrior Washington Fears,' argues the controversial appointee represents 'a direct challenge to the entrenched power brokers who have spent decades turning the Pentagon into a revolving door for defense contractors and corporate lobbyists.'
A third essay, titled "Why DOGE" with the subtitle "Why I gave up a seven-figure salary to save America," is available only to paid subscribers.
Kliger did not respond to a request for comment, but reposted an Elon Musk post on X on Feb 3, saying, "Time to confess: Media reports saying that @DOGE has some of world's best software engineers are in fact true."
U.S. President Donald Trump appointed Musk head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project.
Luke Farritor
Luke Farritor is a former intern at SpaceX, Musk's space company, where he worked 10-hour days writing software for the pumps, valves and other components that help fuel rockets, according to an article posted on the website of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where Farritor studied computer science.
Farritor was part of an award-winning team that deciphered portions of an ancient Greek scroll, a LinkedIn post shows. He is also a Thiel Fellow, last year winning $100,000 and access to a network of tech founders, investors, scientists, and former fellows to focus on his Greek scroll project.
According to the New York Times, Farritor, was among the workers given access to USAID systems. He is also listed as an 'executive engineer' in the office of the secretary of health and human services, and had an email account at the General Services Administration (GSA), the paper reported. The GSA is a federal government agency that manages federal property and provides contracting services.
Musk's aides, including Farritor, have requested access to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services systems that control contracts and the more than $1 trillion in payments that go out annually, according to the Times.
Farritor did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Edward Coristine
According to Wired magazine, Edward Coristine appears to have recently graduated from high school and to have been enrolled at Northeastern University. He also spent three months at Neuralink, Musk's brain-computer interface company, last summer, the magazine added.
Coristine is listed in internal OPM records as an "expert" at OPM, Wired reported.
A Connecticut registry of businesses shows that an Edward Coristine created three tech or computer-related firms that list as a principal place of business a New Canaan, Connecticut home, valued by Zillow at over $2.4 million. One of them, Tesla.Sexy LLC, dedicated to "Professional, Scientific and Technological services" appears to still be in operation.
Web-based platform Github, which allows developers to store, share and collaborate on code, shows an Eduard C as the only "member" of Diamond CDN -- one of the now dissolved Connecticut-based companies founded by Coristine. The same Eduard C, who describes himself as a technologist who is "passionate about improving humanity!" has contributed to Neuralink's code base, according to the platform.
Coristine did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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