CNN Runs Segment on Government ‘Expert’ Known as ‘Big Balls’

BURNETT: “Now, your latest story is a 19 — it focuses on a 19-year-old software engineer working at DOGE, someone whose past associations that you have looked into such that they are at 19, would call into question passing a background check. Of course, that hasn’t happened in these cases, but would normally happen in a case with access like this.”
DRUMMOND: “One would hope, yes. So this is a 19-year-old high school graduate who has used the unfortunate nickname ‘Big Balls’ online. So that would be one way that we could refer to him. He is now working at Musk’s behest inside DOGE, and we looked into his background. And so we found, you know, several notable things, Erin, one of which is that this individual has founded multiple companies, including one with another unfortunate name, Tesla.Sexy LLC, which he established in 2021. He would have been around 16 years old. Now, this LLC controls dozens of web domains, a handful of which are registered to Russia. Now, that in and of itself is not necessarily illegal, but every expert we spoke to said that that is exactly the kind of thing — those kinds of foreign connections — that would raise red flags on a background check. Now, he also worked at a network monitoring firm that is known for hiring reformed black hat hackers, essentially criminals. And lastly, we uncovered Telegram messages that we’ve linked to this individual in which that Telegram user is soliciting a cyber attack for hire, so actually looking for someone to perform a cyber attack at their behest.”
BURNETT: “And Telegram, of course, is heavily used in Russia. I mean, it’s a definitional social media platform there.”
DRUMMOND: “Of course.”
BURNETT: “So, Kara, you know, you hear this and you have known Elon Musk for years. So now you look at these young men who are now in data and in the private information, about maybe hundreds of millions of American citizens as young as 19, the Big Balls here that Katie is talking about, and most of them are in their early 20s. There’s an exception I’m going to get to in a minute. I’m curious, though, Kara, how well does even Musk know these young men, do you think?”
SWISHER: “I have no idea. I think there is no vetting whatsoever, as you can see, that’s taken place. It took Katie and the really great team at Wired has done an astonishing job here. You know, I could make a joke that’s probably why he was hired, for all this ridiculous nonsense and other nefarious things. But, you know, there’s an expression in technology. It’s not a — it’s a feature, not a bug. This — this is what they do. They are careless. I don’t believe any bit of them when they say they vetted these people. And they just — there are people that will listen to whatever Elon says and do whatever he wants and thinks it’s a ball to do this and very funny. And so they’re willing to do things, say, adults wouldn’t be willing to do or cross lines that they wouldn’t be. He wants these malleable young men, in particular, in order to do this. And they think its fun, and it probably is for them, you know, being able to hang out with Elon Musk and, you know, take down government agencies for them. And the arrogance is massive and the ignorance is even bigger.”
BURNETT: “It is truly incredible.”