The FBI has confirmed that former President Trump was struck in the ear by a bullet in an assassination attempt after the agency’s director, Christopher Wray, questioned what hit his ear earlier this week.
“What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject’s rifle,” the agency said in an emailed statement sent to The Hill Friday.
Trump faced an assassination attempt earlier this month in which he said
that he was hit by a bullet in one of his ears. He was seen sporting a bandage in the wake of the shooting in multiple instances.
The former president insisted Thursday that it was a bullet that struck one of his ears following FBI Director Christopher Wray‘s testimony in front of Congress
Wednesday, during which he said, “There’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that, you know, hit his ear.”
“No, it was, unfortunately, a bullet that hit my ear, and hit it hard. There was no glass, there was no shrapnel,” Trump said on Truth Social. “The hospital called it a ‘bullet wound to the ear,’ and that is what it was. No wonder the once storied FBI has lost the confidence of America!”
Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), a former White House physician who said he treated the former president following the incident, disputed Wray’s questioning of what hit Trump’s ear.
“During the Congressional Hearing two days ago, FBI Director Christopher Wray suggested that it could be a bullet, shrapnel, or glass,” Jackson said in a letter posted Friday to Truth Social.
“There is absolutely no evidence that it was anything other than a bullet. Congress should correct the record as confirmed by both the hospital and myself. Director Wray is wrong and inappropriate to suggest anything else,” he added.
Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, a former White House physician with direct knowledge of Donald Trump’s wounded right ear, disputes FBI Director Christopher Wray
‘s questioning of whether a bullet struck the former president in the assassination attempt.
Wray said that “there’s some question” whether Trump got hit by “a bullet or shrapnel” during the July 13 assassination attempt
in testimony Wednesday to the House Judiciary Committee about the FBI’s investigation of the shooting at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Jackson released a statement Friday saying there is “absolutely no evidence” anything other than a bullet injured Trump’s upper right ear
.
“During the Congressional Hearing two days ago, FBI Director Christopher Wray suggested that it could be a bullet, shrapnel, or glass,” Jackson wrote. “There is absolutely no evidence that it was anything other than a bullet. Congress should correct the record as confirmed by both the hospital and myself. Director Wray is wrong and inappropriate to suggest anything else.”
Jackson said he has treated many gunshot wounds throughout his 20-year career as an emergency medicine physician in the Navy and as a combat physician in Iraq.
He wrote that he can “completely concur” with the initial assessment and treatment provided to Trump at Butler Memorial Hospital, where he was treated for a gunshot wound to the ear.
Wray testified to the House Judiciary Committee
that Trump’s would-be assassin, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, used a semiautomatic AR-15-style rifle with a collapsible stock during the shooting. Trump, surrounded by Secret Service agents, exited the rally with blood dripping down his face.
“I think with respect to former President Trump, there’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that, you know, that hit his ear,” Wray testified Wednesday. “As I sit here right now, I don’t know if that bullet, in addition to causing the grazing, also could have landed somewhere else.”
A photograph taken during the shooting by The New York Times’ Doug Mills shows a bullet flying directly by the right side of Trump’s head just moments before he began bleeding.
Crooks fired eight rounds, killing former volunteer fire chief Corey Comperatore and wounding two other rally attendees, authorities said. The gunman climbed onto the roof of a building unoccupied by authorities and 130 feet away from the rally stage.
The Secret Service and the FBI
told lawmakers Wednesday that authorities noticed Crooks approximately 50 minutes before Trump came onstage. One source told senators that Crooks was spotted with a rangefinder, while others said they saw him standing on the rooftop with a firearm about 20 minutes before bullets were fired.
Bipartisan questions about how the incident occurred led former Secret Service
Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign from the agency Tuesday following a tense hearing Monday before the House Oversight Committee.
Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and ranking member Jamie Raskin,D-Md., issued a joint statement Monday following the hearing calling for Cheatle’s resignation and stating that she “failed to provide answers” about the “stunning operational failure” during the rally.
MSNBC’s Michael Steele and Ari Melber both raised questions about the details of Trump’s wounded ear. Steele said July 16 that “a lot of questions” surround Trump’s injury, while Melber suggested the bandage on the ear was a “political quest” to gain sympathy and clout.
In a July 17 post on Threads, MSNBC anchor Joy Reid suggested that flying glass may have injured Trump.
The FBI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, a former White House physician with direct knowledge of Donald Trump’s wounded right ear, disputes FBI Director Christopher Wray
‘s questioning of whether a bullet struck the former president in the assassination attempt.
Wray said that “there’s some question” whether Trump got hit by “a bullet or shrapnel” during the July 13 assassination attempt
in testimony Wednesday to the House Judiciary Committee about the FBI’s investigation of the shooting at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Jackson released a statement Friday saying there is “absolutely no evidence” anything other than a bullet injured Trump’s upper right ear
.
“During the Congressional Hearing two days ago, FBI Director Christopher Wray suggested that it could be a bullet, shrapnel, or glass,” Jackson wrote. “There is absolutely no evidence that it was anything other than a bullet. Congress should correct the record as confirmed by both the hospital and myself. Director Wray is wrong and inappropriate to suggest anything else.”
Jackson said he has treated many gunshot wounds throughout his 20-year career as an emergency medicine physician in the Navy and as a combat physician in Iraq.
He wrote that he can “completely concur” with the initial assessment and treatment provided to Trump at Butler Memorial Hospital, where he was treated for a gunshot wound to the ear.
Wray testified to the House Judiciary Committee
that Trump’s would-be assassin, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, used a semiautomatic AR-15-style rifle with a collapsible stock during the shooting. Trump, surrounded by Secret Service agents, exited the rally with blood dripping down his face.
“I think with respect to former President Trump, there’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that, you know, that hit his ear,” Wray testified Wednesday. “As I sit here right now, I don’t know if that bullet, in addition to causing the grazing, also could have landed somewhere else.”
A photograph taken during the shooting by The New York Times’ Doug Mills shows a bullet flying directly by the right side of Trump’s head just moments before he began bleeding.
Crooks fired eight rounds, killing former volunteer fire chief Corey Comperatore and wounding two other rally attendees, authorities said. The gunman climbed onto the roof of a building unoccupied by authorities and 130 feet away from the rally stage.
The Secret Service and the FBI
told lawmakers Wednesday that authorities noticed Crooks approximately 50 minutes before Trump came onstage. One source told senators that Crooks was spotted with a rangefinder, while others said they saw him standing on the rooftop with a firearm about 20 minutes before bullets were fired.
Bipartisan questions about how the incident occurred led former Secret Service
Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign from the agency Tuesday following a tense hearing Monday before the House Oversight Committee.
Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and ranking member Jamie Raskin,D-Md., issued a joint statement Monday following the hearing calling for Cheatle’s resignation and stating that she “failed to provide answers” about the “stunning operational failure” during the rally.
MSNBC’s Michael Steele and Ari Melber both raised questions about the details of Trump’s wounded ear. Steele said July 16 that “a lot of questions” surround Trump’s injury, while Melber suggested the bandage on the ear was a “political quest” to gain sympathy and clout.
In a July 17 post on Threads, MSNBC anchor Joy Reid suggested that flying glass may have injured Trump.
The FBI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
FBI director stirs skepticism over Trump’s bullet claims
FBI Director Christopher Wray kicked a hornet’s nest when he cast doubt on former President Trump’s claims that he was hit by a bullet in his July 13 assassination attempt.
Speaking before the House Judiciary Committee, Wray said that “with respect to former President Trump, there’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that … hit his ear.”
Wray’s remarks drew the ire of Trump, who soon after the shooting said he had been hit by a bullet at the Butler, Pa., rally, and has since framed his survival as an act of divine intervention.
The former president, in a lengthy post on Truth Social
late Thursday, insisted he was indeed hit by a bullet and slammed the FBI as having “lost the confidence” of the United States.
Trump, who nominated Wray as FBI director in 2017, also claimed the agency “never even checked!” as to what caused his injury.
However, Trump has not released medical records, and Wray’s comments haveincreased calls for the former president to prove what caused his injury.
“Donald Trump is clearly using this as part of his campaign. And if he’s lying about whether he was actually shot, that’s something that the American people should know,” said Rep Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), according to CBS News
reporter Scott MacFarlane.
“I’ve waited a while to say this but the burden is now on Trump to show he was shot,” Juliette Kayyem, a former undersecretary for Homeland Security, wrote on X
.
“I can condemn the assassination and still demand truth, especially since Trump is now politicizing taking a bullet,” she added. “Wray has now opened the door; this is not a conspiracy theory. Wray, known for exact phrasing and being careful, didn’t say this on accident. He is begging us to ask.”
The FBI is leading the criminal investigation into the shooting, which killed one rally-goer and seriously injured two others before the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was shot and killed by a Secret Service sniper.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and fierce defender of Trump, sent a letter Friday to Wray pushing him to correct his testimony “immediately.”
“I urge you to immediately correct your statement and acknowledge that President Trump was hit by a bullet rather than glass or shrapnel,” Graham wrote. “As head of the FBI, you should not be creating confusion about such matters, as it further undercuts the agency’s credibility with millions of Americans.”
But no official medical evaluation from a doctor or hospital who treated Trump in the immediate aftermath of the attack has been publicly released.
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