Teen DOGE staffer was previously fired after being accused of leaking employer's secrets
How scammers use psychology to create some of the most convincing internet cons Hacker with laptop, Image via Shutterstock.

A 19-year-old staffer on Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency who has been given access to sensitive government data was fired by a previous employer for allegedly leaking company secrets to competitors, according to Bloomberg.

Bloomberg reports that Edward Coristine, who has emerged as a key member of Musk's team that has been wreaking havoc on government operations, was fired three years ago from an internship at Arizona-based data-security firm Path Network due to being involved in "leaking of proprietary company information," according to the company.

What's more, Bloomberg has found that Coristine boasted of his exploits while posting on a Discord chat shortly after being fired.

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"I had access to every single machine," he wrote and then further said he could have wiped all of Path Network's customer-supporting servers if he'd decided to do so.

The teen nonetheless insisted that he did "nothing contractually wrong" while working at Path Network.

Coristine is not the only member of the DOGE team with a checkered past, as earlier this week it was revealed that DOGE team member Marko Elez made a number of racist posts on a pseudonymous X account in recent months, including recommendations to "normalize Indian hate" and boasts that "just for the record, I was racist before it was cool."