Breaking: Federal Charges in Brutal Assault on DOGE’s ‘Big Balls’ Coristine Ignite Fury Over Repeat Offender’s Lenient Past

By Elena Vasquez, Justice and Politics Correspondent October 21, 2025

WASHINGTON — In a fiery press conference that laid bare the fractures in America’s justice system, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro unveiled federal charges Monday against two young men accused of savagely beating Edward “Big Balls” Coristine, the former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer whose summer attack became a flashpoint for national outrage. The defendants—19-year-old Laurence “Cotton” Powell and 18-year-old Anthony Taylor—face a litany of felonies, including first-degree robbery and assault with intent to rob, that could lock them away for decades. But it was Pirro’s scorching takedown of Powell’s checkered history—marked by multiple convictions and inexplicable releases on probation despite prosecutors’ pleas for prison—that stole the spotlight, fueling a conservative firestorm over “soft-on-crime” judges and reigniting calls for sweeping reforms in D.C.’s courts.

The charges stem from the early-morning chaos of August 3, 2025, on a dimly lit stretch of Swann Street NW, where Coristine, then 19 and a rising tech whiz in the Trump administration’s efficiency task force, found himself at the epicenter of a mob assault. Walking a female colleague to her car after a late-night hangout with friends, Coristine spotted a group of about 10 youths across the street, their postures tense and predatory. As she fumbled for her keys, they swarmed, hurling demands for the vehicle and raining down punches and kicks. Coristine, dubbed “Big Balls” by admirers for his unyielding grit in viral recount videos of the brawl, fought back fiercely, shielding his friend and landing blows until sirens wailed. He emerged bloodied—facial fractures, a stolen watch, and a missing shoe—but alive, thanks to a patrolling officer’s timely arrival.

What unfolded next, Pirro revealed, was a crime spree stitched from one victim’s nightmare to another’s. Just minutes earlier, around 3 a.m., the same pack had targeted 22-year-old Ethan Levine outside a Sunoco gas station blocks away. There, they pummeled him, rifled his pockets, and fled on foot—straight toward Coristine. “After the robbery and assault of Ethan Levine, they walked in the direction of where another crime occurred within minutes,” Pirro thundered, flanked by photos of the battered victims. Both Powell and Taylor, arrested last Friday, confessed to investigators: Powell admitted to kicking and punching Levine and Coristine alike; Taylor owned up to key-jacking demands and strikes on the DOGE aide. The duo now stares down attempted unarmed carjacking (up to five years), two counts each of first-degree robbery and assault with intent to rob (15 years apiece)—a potential 50-year stack if sentences run consecutively.

Yet the announcement’s true gut-punch landed on Powell’s rap sheet, a dossier Pirro brandished like a smoking gun. At 19, the D.C. native has racked up convictions this year alone that would doom most: a felony attempted robbery in April, for which prosecutors begged jail time but a judge opted for probation; a swift probation violation, netting simple assault and weapons possession charges, again met with a stern “do better” and release; and, within 10 days of that slap on the wrist, the double-header assaults on Levine and Coristine. “After a felony attempted robbery conviction, after a violation of probation, after a second crime—after no compliance with supervision—the judges say, ‘Do better,’ and they let him go,” Pirro fumed, her voice cracking with prosecutorial exasperation. “And guess what? Within 10 days, he’s at it again.” Taylor, from Temple Hills, Maryland, lacks Powell’s priors but mirrors the charges, his clean slate offering scant mercy in Pirro’s zero-tolerance vow.

The revelations have supercharged a narrative long peddled by Trump allies: that liberal-leaning judges in sanctuary cities like D.C. coddle violent youth, breeding bolder predators. President Trump, who spotlighted Coristine’s heroism to justify his August surge of National Guard troops into the capital, seized the moment on Truth Social: “Big Balls fought like a lion for his girl—now these animals get federal justice! End the revolving door!” Conservative firebrands echoed the call, with Fox’s Sean Hannity dubbing it “the poster child for bail reform gone mad.” Pirro, a Trump appointee and former Fox staple, didn’t mince words: Her office has petitioned to revoke Powell’s probation, arguing the system failed not just victims but public safety. Legal experts note D.C.’s Family Court, which handled two 15-year-old co-defendants last week (both got probation for simple assault pleas), often prioritizes rehabilitation for juveniles, a philosophy critics say blinds it to patterns like Powell’s.

Coristine, who left DOGE in June amid the administration’s post-election shuffle, has largely stayed mum since his initial, blood-smeared interview: “I knew something was off… They got me on the ground, demanding the car. But I wasn’t backing down.” The moniker “Big Balls,” born from a colleague’s quip about his rally recount heroics, has morphed into a MAGA rallying cry, with memes flooding X and donors flooding a legal fund topping $150,000. Levine, recovering from his own beating, issued a brief statement: “No one should fear a gas station run.” Both men’s ordeals underscore D.C.’s grim stats: a 35% spike in carjackings this year, per MPD data, amid a post-pandemic youth crime wave.

Broader ripples are already forming. House Judiciary Republicans, led by Jim Jordan, fired off letters demanding audits of D.C. judges’ sentencing disparities, while Senate Democrats like Dick Durbin counter that systemic poverty and underfunded mental health services fuel recidivism—not ideology. Pirro, unbowed, pitched lowering the “age of accountability” to 14 and mandating detention for violent repeaters. “This isn’t about politics; it’s about prevention,” she insisted, though her barbs at “leftist judges” drew eye-rolls from progressives, who point to federal data showing race and class biases in prosecutorial recommendations.

As arraignments loom Tuesday—Powell and Taylor held without bond—the case crystallizes a nation’s divide: heroism rewarded in viral lore, but justice deferred until federal hammers fall. For Coristine, a Missouri kid turned D.C. warrior, the scars linger, but so does resolve. “I fought for what’s right,” he told supporters last month. With Pirro’s gavel echoing, the question lingers: Will this be the spark that torches turnstile justice, or just another chapter in America’s endless crime debate? In the halls of power, where DOGE dreams of efficiency clash with street-level savagery, one thing’s clear: The balls to fight back now demand the spine to lock doors for good.