PacketSled CEO Matt Harrigan Placed On Leave After Trump Death Threat Which He Says Was A Joke

Matt Harrigan, the president and CEO of San Diego-based cybersecurity startup firm PacketSled, is on administrative leave after allegedly threatening to kill President-elect Donald Trump with a sniper rifle.

On Twitter yesterday as part of a series of tweets about the controversy, Harrigan described his prior online remarks as a “flawed joke.”

[see update below]

On its website, PacketSled posted the following statement.

“PacketSled takes recent comments made by our CEO, seriously. Once we were made aware of these comments, we immediately reported this information to the secret service and will cooperate fully with any inquiries. These comments do not reflect the views or opinions of PacketSled, its employees, investors or partners. Our CEO has been placed on administrative leave.”

According to PJ Media, the now-deleted Facebook content spotted by Reddit users allegedly discussed assassinating Donald Trump.

“‘I’m going to kill the president. Elect,’ Harrigan declared on Facebook. When someone cautioned him about making comments that could attract the attention of the FBI or Secret Service, Harrigan said, ‘Bring it secret service.’ When one of his buddies said ‘you just need to get high,’ he went into disturbing detail about his plans.”

“‘Nope, getting a sniper rifle and perching myself where it counts. Find a bedroom in the White House that suits you, motherf***er. I’ll find you.’ Later on that night, he wrote in all caps, ‘IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS F**K YOU AMERICA. SERIOUSLY. F**K OFF.'”

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that the Secret Service is aware of the social media material but had no comment beyond that. San Diego’s NBC7 detailed that it had contacted local cops and the FBI field office “to ask if Harrigan is facing any charges.”

As mentioned above, Harrigan took to Twitter yesterday to apologize for his flawed joke and explained that he harbors no malice toward President-elect Donald Trump.

“Efforts to reach Harrigan and PacketSled were unsuccessful. The company makes forensics software that detects where a cyberattack is coming from, what files are being targeted and which devices are being affected, among other things,” the Los Angeles Times explained.

Per the Gateway Pundit, in a separate apology that apparently was posted to and then deleted from the PacketSled home page, Harrigan supposedly had this to say about the alleged Donald Trump death threat.

“My recent facebook comment was intended to be a joke, in the context of a larger conversation, and only privately shared as such. Anyone who knows me, knows that I do not engage in this form of rhetoric with any level of seriousness and the comment most certainly does not represent my real personal views in any regard. I apologize if anything that I said was either taken seriously, was offensive, or caused any legitimate concern. Best Regards, Matt Harrigan”

Other than PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and perhaps some others, Donald Trump received very little political backing from the tech industry.

“Last week, Monisha Rajesh, a columnist for the Telegraph and the Guardian newspaper, deleted her Twitter account shortly after tweeting that ‘it’s about time a presidential assassination,'” BizPacReview noted. The Guardian subsequently distanced itself from the writer, who it described as a freelancer.

Separately, an anti-Trump rally in Washington, D.C., (and perhaps at other locations) over the weekend featured a “rape Melania” sign and even more disturbing, it was allowed to trend on Twitter, even though the social media network claims that it has no tolerance for hate speech. Melania Trump is, of course, the future First Lady of the United States.

The response to the outcome of the 2016 presidential election has been unusually emotional for those who are apparently dissatisfied with the outcome, i.e., Donald Trump’s electoral college landslide that will make him the 45th U.S. commander in chief.

“The shock and anger over Donald Trump’s ascension to the White House has triggered a flood of calls on Twitter and other social media outlets for the president-elect to be assassinated — and authorities will investigate all threats deemed to be credible,” the New York Post reported last week.

[Featured Image by Spencer Platt/Getty Images]

UPDATE: According to this tweet, Matt Harrigan is now the ex-CEO of PacketSled as a result of his resignation from the company.