The FBI on July 26 clarified that former President Donald Trump was hit by a bullet or a bullet fragment during an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania earlier this month, after the FBI’s director last week suggested that glass, shrapnel, or a bullet could have struck the former president’s ear.
During a congressional hearing on July 25, FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers that with regard to the shooting of former President Trump at a Butler, Pennsylvania, campaign rally, there was “some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear.”
However, the FBI confirmed on July 26 that the former president was wounded by a bullet.
“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,” an FBI spokesperson said in a statement issued to The Epoch Times.
Mr. Wray’s comment drew controversy in Congress, with some House members later asking that he offer a statement to clarify his testimony. The former president’s medical records about the shooting haven’t been released to the public.
Former President Trump, meanwhile, wrote on social media that it was a bullet that hit his ear, not glass or shrapnel.
“No, it was, unfortunately, a bullet that hit my ear, and hit it hard. There was no glass, there was no shrapnel,” the 45th president wrote on Truth Social on July 26. “The hospital called it a ‘bullet wound to the ear,’ and that is what it was.”
After the shooting, former White House physician Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) evaluated the former president’s condition and determined earlier this month that a bullet had struck his ear.
Dr. Jackson released a statement on social media on July 26 in response to Mr. Wray’s statement before Congress, saying that “based on my direct observations of the injury ... and my significant expertise evaluating and treating patients with similar wounds, I completely concur with the initial assessment” that was provided by doctors and nurses that the injury was a gunshot wound.
Video footage of the rally shooting shows the former president’s right hand whipping to his ear after loud popping noises could be heard. He then ducks to the ground as Secret Service agents rush to provide him cover. As he gets up, former President Trump’s ear can be seen bloodied, and streaks of blood can be seen across his face.
Following the assassination attempt, former President Trump had a bandage on his ear, including during his speech at the end of the Republican National Convention in mid-July.
During that speech, he recounted the assassination attempt and said he was only alive because of the “grace of Almighty God.” Photos and video taken of the shooting show that former President Trump moved his head slightly to the right before the shots rang out.
“I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me really, really hard on my right ear,” he said. “I said to myself, ‘Wow, what was that? It can only be a bullet.'”
One rally attendee was killed and two people were injured. The suspected gunman, identified by the FBI as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was shot and killed by Secret Service countersnipers soon after he fired the shots at the rally.
Mr. Wray, during his testimony, said the FBI hasn’t identified a motive that drove Mr. Crooks to carry out the shooting. He did say that the shooter flew a drone about 200 yards from the rally stage two hours beforehand and that he had carried out a Google search about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald.
