In a legal context, the ruling is often on the basis of how "the average person" would interpret something, and not on the minutiae of what you think the exact

In a legal context, the ruling is often on the basis of how "the average person" would interpret something, and not on the minutiae of what you think the exact semantics are. Given that, it's likely that "the average person" would interpret the CEO's remark as, to all intents and purposes, calling the OP an asshole. This is why (a) it's a gamble "going legal", because the interpretation the judges make might not be what you expect, and (b) nitpicking like this is unhelpful and unconstructive.