Elon Musk has hired a team of six software engineers between the ages of 19 and 24 as members of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.   

The team members were identified by a Wired article published on Sunday.  Wired described Musk's role in DODGE as "takeover of federal government infrastructure," and focused on the young ages of the engineers, their access to sensitive data, and their previous work at companies owned by Musk and libertarian Peter Thiel. 

The department head and tech entrepreneur responded to the criticism expressed by the media outlet in a post on X on Monday morning.

"Time to confess: Media reports saying that DODGE has some of the world's best software engineers are in fact true," Musk wrote.

Musk also reposted reports of threats towards the engineers posted by anonymous Reddit users. "They have broken the law," he captioned his repost of the threats to dox and kill the DODGE employees.

Trump appointed United States Attorney Ed Martin reached out to Musk on X later in the day with an official letter to assist with any threats or harassment towards members of DOGE after "some of the Staff at DOGE has been targeted publicly."

One of the purposes of the DOGE is "Modernizing Federal Technology and Software to Maximize Efficiency and Productivity" according to the executive order that created the department.  Specific goals include improving the quality of government software and ensuring data integrity.  

One of the hires, Luke Farritor, received an $250,000 award last year for his contributions as a member of a team who developed an AI program that translated the Pompeii scrolls.  Other hires are Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran.