A Biden-appointed judge on Thursday ordered the release of two Maryland teenagers accused of assaulting a former Department of Government Efficiency staffer in a high-profile attempted carjacking.
Judge Kendra Briggs, named to the bench by former President Joe Biden, freed the 15-year-old boy and girl under strict conditions despite local prosecutors’ objections that at least one of them remained a danger to the community. The two are accused of trying to steal a car in Dupont Circle on Aug. 3, an incident that drew national attention when the group of teenagers allegedly brutally beat Edward “Big Balls” Coristine, a 19-year-old former staffer at DOGE, as he intervened in the attempted carjacking.
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BREAKING: Biden Appointed Judge Kendra Briggs has ordered the release to “less restrictive detention” of two thugs who were arrested for attacking former DOGE member Edward Coristine, aka “Big Balls’, after an attempted carjacking with eight others who have not yet been arrested. pic.twitter.com/IwmHKwPPt5
— ALX ???????? (@alx) August 22, 2025
Briggs ordered the girl to live in a youth shelter; she is subject to weekly drug tests and a ban on electronic devices. The boy was permitted to return to his mother’s home in Hyattsville, Maryland, because the shelter was too far from his school, according to multiple media reports. Both face 24-hour curfews and electronic monitoring and are banned from contacting each other.
“School and home, that’s it,” Briggs said from the bench, warning the pair that any violation would result in an emergency hearing, according to the Washington Post. Prosecutors with D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb’s office highlighted the girl’s pending case in Maryland and her history of chronic truancy, but the court allowed her release anyway. Authorities are still searching for a third suspect believed to be involved in the carjacking attempt.
The decision underscored the disconnect between Washington’s local justice system and President Donald Trump’s aggressive effort to restore order. Since the attack, Trump has federalized the Metropolitan Police Department, deployed the National Guard, and surged federal law enforcement resources into the city.
“It’s like a different place, it’s a different city … everybody’s safe now,” Trump said Thursday afternoon during a visit to the U.S. Park Police headquarters in Anacostia, where he thanked officers for “cleaning up the streets.”
As of Friday morning, D.C. had gone a full week without a murder, Trump boasted in an interview, a new record for a city that in recent years averaged at least one killing every other day. Trump celebrated the milestone on Truth Social, posting “MAKE WASHINGTON, D.C. GREAT AGAIN!” alongside photos with law enforcement.
Critics argue the release of youth criminal defendants reflects a broader trend in D.C.’s juvenile courts, where judges frequently opt for GPS ankle monitors instead of secure detention, even for repeat violent offenders. A Washington Post investigation in June found the number of youths on monitors has tripled since the mid-2000s, and some devices went uncharged for weeks without consequences, allowing teenagers to commit new crimes.
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In just two months last year, five juveniles died while wearing monitors, including a 16-year-old whose device had not been charged for over two weeks.
Trump, pointing to cases like Coristine’s, has blamed what he calls a soft-on-crime approach for emboldened gangs of teenagers who know they will “almost immediately [be] released.” Juveniles account for about half of robbery suspects and 60% of carjacking suspects in the city, according to police data.