They were meant to be gone after 130 days—but three Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffers hired as restricted special government employees (SGEs) are now full time.
Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, and Ethan Shaotran were brought on board in early February and have been made full time in the last two months, Wired reported.
Shaotran was made full time on April 10 and Coristine, who has been known as “Big Balls,” and Farritor on May 31, all of them retaining their title as “senior advisor.”
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Prior to being made full time none of the trio drew a government salary but they are now receiving some of the highest possible salaries for government employees, according to documents seen by Wired.
The trio all had connections to Musk’s companies before joining DOGE. Shaotran took part in an xAI hackathon, Coristine worked at Neuralink, and Farritor completed an internship at SpaceX.
Musk officially left DOGE last week after managing to cut only $170 billion from the federal budget—if the SpaceX and Tesla CEO’s questionable numbers are to be trusted—a far cry from the $1 trillion he pledged to trim.
But it appears his departure has not marked the end of DOGE efforts to cut the federal budget, Wired reported last week that new work on cuts was underway at the Office of Personnel Management, Department of Agriculture, the Department of Labor, and the Department of the Interior.
Musk’s legacy, and that of his famed DOGE, was shredded again this week when it was revealed the department’s employees had left a mess that included drugs and cockroaches in the office of a nonprofit they illegally tried to occupy.
In a statement the chief executive of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) said the organization’s Washington, D.C., headquarters said the building had been infested with vermin while DOGE was working inside, according to The Economist.
The White House and GSA did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Daily Beast.
