CEO of Del Mar Cyber-security Company Resigns After Trump Threats

DEL MAR, CA -- One day after he was put on leave for making assassination threats against President-Elect Donald Trump, the CEO of Del Mar-based cyber-security startup PacketSled has resigned from his post.

In the days following the Presidential election, Matt Harrigan had allegedly threatened Trump via both Twitter and Facebook, saying he would use a sniper rifle against Trump at the White House.

On Twitter, he stated he was going to kill the President-Elect, followed by "Bring it, Secret Service." He also posted on Facebook that he would 'perch' himself with his weapon "where it counts."

"I'll find you," he said.

In a Nov. 14 statement, PacketSled said it takes the posts seriously and that once the company was made aware of them, it reported the comments to the Secret Service.

"These comments do not reflect the views or opinions of PacketSled, its employees, investors or partners," the statement read in part. "Our CEO has been placed on administrative leave."

Harrigan later apologized, saying via Twitter that his comments were merely a bad joke.

My humble apologies that a flawed joke has become public/out of context. My poor judgement does not represent the views of @packetsled …— Matt Harrigan (@mattharrigan) November 13, 2016

However, in a statement on its website, PacketSled said Nov. 15 that Harrigan had resigned, effective immediately and that the company's Chief Technology Officer would serve as interim CEO while the company searches for a permanent replacement.

"We want to be very clear, PacketSled does not condone the comments made by Mr. Harrigan, which do not reflect the views or opinions of the company, its employees, investors or partners," the company said in its statement.

Harrigan has made no public comment since the announcement of his resignation.

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