The FBI confirmed Trump’s statement Friday night, saying the shooter who pointed the gun at the former president did indeed hit him in the ear.
“What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, either intact or fragmented into small pieces, fired from the deceased victim’s rifle,” the FBI said in a statement Friday, according to multiple news outlets.
Earlier Friday, FBI Director Christopher Wray expressed doubt when he told the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee that it was unclear whether Trump was hit by a bullet or shrapnel at Trump’s July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“I think, with regard to former President Trump, there is some question about whether it was a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear,” Wray said Wednesday.
His comments were in response to a question from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who asked where the eight shots fired by gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks went.
Wray added, “So it’s possible, although as I sit here now I don’t know if that bullet, other than causing a scratch, could have landed somewhere else. But I’m confident that we’ve accounted for all the shots in the casing.”
Jordan continued, “My understanding is that the first shot was the one that hit the president. The first shot. Or was that inaccurate?”
“As I sit here right now, I don’t know the answer. I’m sure we know the answer. I just don’t have the answer,” Wray replied.
The gunman — who was shot dead by the Secret Service — opened fire from the rooftop minutes after Trump’s July 13 rally, leaving the former president with a bloody ear, one attendee dead and two others wounded.
When asked Thursday for comment on Wray’s testimony on the question of whether Trump was hit by a bullet or shrapnel, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told Business Insider: “Anyone who believes this conspiracy nonsense is either mentally handicapped or is deliberately spreading lies for political reasons.”
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, appointed Wray as FBI director in 2017.
The FBI told BI in a statement that since the day of the attack, the agency “has been consistent and clear that the shooting was an assassination attempt on former President Trump that resulted in his injury, as well as the death of a heroic father and the injury of several other victims.”
“FBI Director Wray testified extensively before Congress on Wednesday about the FBI’s investigation. This was a brutal attack and the FBI is devoting enormous resources to learning everything possible about the shooter and what led to his violent actions. The FBI’s Shooting Reconstruction Team continues to examine evidence from the scene, including bullet fragments, and the investigation is ongoing,” the agency said.
Meanwhile, firearms expert Peter Diaczuk told BI that whether a bullet or shrapnel hit Trump, both would have caused the same damage to his ear and the former president would not have known the difference.
“Both would have ripped off the ear. Both were going at relatively high speeds,” said Diaczuk, a professor of forensic science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York.
Additionally, Diaczuk told BI that it was most likely a bullet that hit Trump’s ear, not shrapnel.
For a bullet to break apart and cause fragments, “the bullet has to hit something substantial to compromise its integrity,” Diaczuk explained.
“And from what I saw — obviously, I don’t have as much information as people who were on the scene to see what happened — but from what I saw that day and the next day, was that there was a clear line of sight between the sniper’s nest and the podium,” Diaczuk said. “And if that was the case, then there was nothing that would have caused the bullet to break apart.”
“I don’t see any indication of an object that could have caused the bullet to fragment,” he said.
Texas Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson, who served as Trump’s White House physician, said in a previously released note that the former president “suffered a gunshot wound” that caused “extensive bleeding” and “significant swelling” throughout his upper ear.
“The bullet passed less than a quarter inch from his head and struck the upper part of his right ear,” the memo said. “The bullet’s path produced a 2-cm wide wound extending down from the surface of the ear cartilage.”
Update July 26, 2024: This story was updated to include a statement from the FBI that “the bullet, either intact or broken into small pieces,” struck Trump in the ear.
