FBI Director Christopher Wray repeated claims by MSNBC’s Joy Reid and doubted the nature of former President Donald Trump’s injury [1] during the shooting incident at his Butler, Pennsylvania, rally earlier this month.
Wray revealed uncertainty surrounding whether Trump was directly shot or hit by shrapnel when the gunman opened fire.
The FBI has been actively investigating the assassination attempt, which resulted in the death of one rally-goer and left two others seriously injured, prior to the 20-year-old assailant, Thomas Matthew Crooks, being fatally shot by the Secret Service.
If only someone in the front row had taken a picture of the teleprompters after the event that could debunk the entire “fragment of teleprompter” theory.
A photo like this one that I took. pic.twitter.com/GUQPRMyeLe [2]
— Brick Suit (@Brick_Suit) July 25, 2024 [3]
Following the assassination attempt, Trump, with a bloodied ear, recounted the experience, declaring being “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear” on his Truth Social platform. He vividly described the intense moment, recalling hearing “a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin.”
In a subsequent development a week after the violent incident, the Trump campaign released a doctor’s note from former White House physician and Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson [4], confirming that Trump sustained a gunshot wound to the right ear, narrowly avoiding a more severe injury. Jackson’s note reassured that Trump was “doing well, and he is recovering as expected.”
However, during his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Wray shared that it remains unclear whether Trump’s injury was inflicted by a bullet or shrapnel.
When questioned by California Rep. Kevin Kiley about the proximity of the assailant’s shot to Trump, Wray disclosed that “either a bullet or a piece of shrapnel is what grazed [Trump’s] ear.”