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.
A Mississippi congressman downplayed how his bill would affect
former President Donald Trump’s safety.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., introduced the Denying Infinite Security and Government Resources Allocated toward Convicted and Extremely Dishonorable (DISGRACED) Former Protectees Act in April, which would revoke Secret Service protection
for those sentenced following conviction for a federal or state felony with a prison term.
After Trump was shot at a campaign rally
on July 13 in Pennsylvania, Thompson said that even if the bill passed, it would not affect Trump.
“My bill would not have affected the Secret Service’s presence during this tragic event. It aims to clarify lines of authority when a protectee is sentenced to prison and is in the custody of another law enforcement agency,” the congressman said in a statement to the Mississippi Free Press. “That does not apply to the former president.”
Thompson’s less-than-200-word bill states that if the convicted felon’s offense is “punishable for a term of imprisonment of at least one year,” regardless of the actual sentence, the person’s Secret Service protection is terminated.
In May, a New York jury found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts. The former president was convicted for allegedly falsifying business records in violation of New York Penal Law §175.10, the penalty for which can be up to four years in jail.
Trump is yet to be sentenced, and it is unlikely he will receive jail time. But because the law he allegedly violated is punishable by imprisonment for at least one year, regardless of his sentence, he would lose his Secret Service detail after sentencing.
If Thompson’s bill passes, Trump would be denied a Secret Service detail
for life, even if he is reelected president in November.
Thompson’s press secretary did not respond to The Daily Signal’s question
about whether the Democrat intended to mislead the public about how his bill would affect Trump.
Politico legal reporter Kyle Cheney said in a now-deleted tweet that the bill “would only have applied to the Secret Service detail of someone who is *incarcerated* …”
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, set the record straight, informing Cheney that “the termination of Secret Service protection in Mr. Thompson’s bill does not require incarceration.”
Cheney corrected himself, admitting that Thompson’s claims were misleading: “Though Thompson has *said* the bill is meant to terminate USSS [U.S. Secret Service] protection for incarcerated felons, the language of the bill goes further than that.”
Upon fair responses from @chiproytx
and @RepThomasMassie
and others, deleting this earlier tweet. Though Thompson has *said* the bill is meant to terminate USSS protection for incarcerated felons, the language of the bill goes further than that. pic.twitter.com/LSFirc9IAo
The House Freedom Caucus urged House leadership to remove Thompson from the task force now investigating the Trump assassination attempt because of his sponsorship of a bill that would have placed Trump in even graver danger at his Pennsylvania rally.
“In April, Rep. Bennie Thompson launched an effort with other radical progressive Democrats
to deny Secret Service protection to President Trump—legislation that he continues to defend even after the attempted assassination on July 13,” the Freedom Caucus said in a statement.
“We therefore urge the removal of Rep. Thompson as the ranking member of the House Committee on Homeland Security,” the caucus continued. “Similarly, his actions should invalidate Rep. Thompson from serving on the task force to investigate the attempted assassination of President Trump. Americans cannot trust that he will be an unbiased arbiter of the facts in the effort to get to the bottom of the greatest failure of the Secret Service in more than three decades.”
