CEO recants Trump death threat too late

Matt Harrigan, CEO of PacketSled, got tired and emotional on Sunday, November 13.

He issued death threats against Donald Trump on Facebook, dared the Secret Service to come after him then insulted the United States.

Language alert below, however, the truth must out. Image courtesy of The_Donald:

There is no way this could have not been taken seriously. He:

1/ Stated he would ‘kill’ the president-elect.

2/ Challenged the Secret Service.

3/ Outlined an assassination plan involving a sniper rifle and aiming for one of the bedrooms in the White House then called Trump one of the crudest names in the book.

4/ Told America twice ‘in no uncertain terms’ where it can go in the crudest of terms.

I really enjoyed the reply from the person who told him where to get off:

for being a whiny CEO of a successful start up as you take your $5,000,000 and continue your success as you drive your Land Rover into your home in a predominantly white coastal city called Del Mar, CA.

Yes, it’s true. Someone doxxed (revealed personal details about) Harrigan on Twitter. His home address is out there, along with a map. I wonder how many people stopped by.

The patriots at The_Donald — the finest group of civilian Americans and international supporters — wasted no time in looking into Harrigan. At least one person notified the Secret Service.

PacketSled is a cyber security firm. On October 26, Harrigan posted a photo of himself with former CIA director James Woolsey on his Facebook page.

Weeks earlier, Politico announced on September 12 that Woolsey — who was CIA director under Bill Clinton — will be serving Donald Trump:

as a senior adviser on national security, defense and intelligence, the campaign announced today.

Woolsey appeared on CNN shortly after the announcement, saying he joined the Trump campaign because he favors the Republican candidate’s defense budget proposal. Trump has proposed to lift the caps on defense spending. Woolsey also advised Republican John McCain’s presidential campaign.

Knowing this, it is curious that Harrigan would then issue blatant death threats against Trump.

On October 4, PacketSled proudly announced that Harrigan was appointed to the board of directors of Cyber Center of Excellence (CCOE) in San Diego (emphases mine):

The San Diego CCOE is a non-profit dedicated to accelerating the region’s cyber economy and positioning it as a global hub of cyber innovation. Harrigan will join representatives from Bank of America, ViaSat, Qualcomm, FICO, ESET, Ernst & Young, US Navy SPAWAR, and others in helping to attract and nurture cybersecurity and IT talent, create new opportunities for businesses, and foster cooperation through the local economy.

Harrigan then attempted to walk back his remarks in a long sentence on Twitter.

First:

My humble apologies that a flawed joke has become public/out of context. My poor judgement does not represent the views of @packetsled …

Second:

customers, investors or the officers of @packetsled. I have no malicious intention towards the #POTUS, and apologize to all for …

Third:

my lack of judgement and offensive commentary. I wish you all well.

He also posted a statement on Facebook:

My recent facebook [sic] 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

It was, thankfully, too late.

In the early hours of Monday morning, PacketSled issued this 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.

I was pleasantly surprised — and relieved — to read that.

There’s more good news. His name no longer appears on the Cyber Centre of Excellence Board list.

As the nuns told us at school: ‘Act in haste, repent at leisure’. I hope his leisure lasts a long time.

Harrigan’s shenanigans also featured in The Gateway Pundit, TruthFeed (which reported him to the Trump campaign) and Media Circus (which took a very dim view). Before Harrigan’s suspension their reporter wrote:

Of course, like the GrubHub CEO Matt Maloney the media is ignoring this death threat. Also like GrubHub, nothing has happened to Matt Harrigan like being removed as CEO of a company. I hope both companies get crushed. It’s because of these left wing CEOs and media hacks that we have the #SorosRiots going on now. It will only get worse by election day. If anything happens, the blood with be on the hands of these CEOs and the media.

I couldn’t agree more.

Enjoy the critical comments on PacketSled’s Facebook page. They’re getting hammered. Here are three as a taster:

Has your threat detection monitored your own pathetic CEO? Delete all you want, I and thousands of others will be back till he is gone or you crash. Your choice.

Wow your CEO is CRAZY…. What a total NUT.. You should all get him out before the FBI and secret service get him… He may just start shooting anyone because he didn’t get his way… This guy is awful….

Looks like your threat detection doesn’t work so well. Maybe its programmed only to search for threats outside of your company? Best of luck. You should hire veterans. They usually don’t act like little kids and make random threats when things don’t go their way. They just “Do Work”

If anything more happens, I’ll be sure to follow up.

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UPDATE — Tuesday, November 15 — Harrigan has resigned: