WASHINGTON (AP) — Almost two weeks later Donald Trump is near assassinationThe FBI confirmed Friday that it was the bullet that grazed the former president’s ear after a gunman opened fire at a Pennsylvania rally, dispelling conflicting accounts of what caused his injuries.
“Former President Trump’s ear was struck by a bullet fired from a deceased person’s gun, whether whole or fragmented,” the agency said in a statement.
A one-sentence statement from the FBI marked and followed the most definitive law enforcement account of Trump’s injuries Vague comments earlier in the week from director Christopher Wray It cast doubt on whether Trump was actually hit by a bullet.
The comment drew ire from Trump and his allies and further fueled the conspiracy theories that have flourished on both sides of the political aisle amid a dearth of information following the July 13 attacks.
So far, federal law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation, including the FBI and Secret Service, have declined to release information about what caused Trump’s injuries. Trump’s campaign has refused to release medical records from the hospital where he was originally treated or make doctors there available for questions.
Instead, updates have come from Trump himself or from Trump’s former White House physician. Ronnie Jackson, a staunch ally now representing Texas in Congress. Although Jackson has been treating Trump since the night of the attack, he has come under considerable scrutiny and is not Trump’s primary care physician.
The FBI’s reluctance to immediately commit to the former president’s case has raised new tensions between the Republican nominee and the nation’s top federal law enforcement agency, which he could soon regain control of. Trump and his supporters have for years accused federal law enforcement of arming them against him, something Wray has consistently denied.
Speaking at an event Friday in West Palm Beach, Florida, Trump drew cheers from the crowd when he described the idea that he might have been hit by glass or shrapnel instead of a bullet.
“Did you see the FBI apology today?” he asked. “It never ends with these people. … We accept their apology.
Trump appeared for the first time on Friday without a bandage on his right ear. Photos and videos show no signs of continued bleeding, and no obvious punctures or wounds.
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Questions about the extent and nature of Trump’s injury began immediately after the attack, with his campaign and law enforcement officials He refused to answer questions about his health or the treatment Trump received after he narrowly escaped being killed in an assassination attempt by a gunman with a high-powered rifle.
Those questions persisted even as photos showed a bullet that had sped through Trump’s teleprompter glasses and his teleprompter glasses just hours after the shooting. A bullet pierced the top of my right ear.”
“I immediately knew something was wrong, in that I heard a whistling sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet tear into the skin,” he wrote.
A few days later, during his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Trump described the scene in detail while wearing a large piece of cloth over his right ear.
“I heard a loud bang and something hit me really hard in my right ear. I said to myself, ‘Oh, what’s that? It could be a bullet,'” he said.
“If I hadn’t moved my head at that last moment, the assassin’s bullet would have hit its mark exactly and I wouldn’t be here tonight,” Trump said.
But the first medical report on Trump’s health didn’t come until a week after the shooting Jackson published his first letter Last Saturday evening. In it, he said, the bullet that hit Trump “created a 2 cm wide wound that extended to the cartilage of the ear.” He also revealed that Trump underwent a CT scan at the hospital.
Federal law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation, including the FBI and Secret Service, declined to confirm that account. And Wray’s testimony provided apparently conflicting answers on the issue.
“There’s some question as to whether or not it was a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear,” Ray said, before suggesting it was indeed a bullet.
“I don’t know if that bullet would have grazed and landed anywhere else,” he said.
On Thursday, the FBI sought to clarify matters with a statement confirming that the shooting was “an attempted assassination of former President Trump that resulted in his injury, as well as the death of a heroic father and injuries to multiple victims.” The FBI said Thursday that its shooting reconstruction team was continuing to examine bullet fragments and other evidence from the scene.
Jackson, who has been treating the former president since the night of the July 13 shooting, told The Associated Press on Thursday that Trump’s ear was bleeding from something other than a bullet.
“It was a bullet wound,” Jackson said. “You cannot make such statements. This leads to all the conspiracy theories.
In his letter Friday, Jackson insisted there was “absolutely no evidence” that Trump was hit by anything other than a bullet, and said it was “false and inappropriate to suggest anything else.”
At Butler Memorial Hospital, the GOP nominee was evaluated and treated for a “gunshot wound to the right ear” after the shooting, he wrote.
“Having served as an emergency medicine physician in the US Navy for over 20 years and as a combat medic on the battlefield in Iraq,” he wrote, “I have treated many gunshot wounds in my career. My first-hand observations of the wound, my relevant medical background, and evaluation of patients with similar injuries Based on my significant experience with the shooting, I fully agree with the nurses’ initial assessment and treatment at Butler Memorial Hospital.”
The FBI declined to comment on the Jackson letters.
Asked whether the campaign would release those hospital records or allow doctors who treated him there to speak, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung blasted the media for asking.
“The media has no shame in engaging in hateful conspiracy theories,” he said. “Facts are facts, and questioning a despicable assassination attempt ultimately cost one life and injured two more.”
In emails last week, he told the AP that “medical readings” had already been provided.
“It’s sad that some people still don’t believe there was a shooting, even after one person was killed and others were injured,” Cheung said.
He added that anyone who believes in conspiracies is either “mentally deranged or deliberately spreading lies for political reasons”.
Trump’s close ally Sen. Lindsey Graham, RSC, urged Wray to correct his testimony. A letter on FridayThe fact that Trump was struck by a bullet “was made clear in the briefings my office received and should not be disputed.”
“As head of the FBI, you must not create confusion about such matters, because it further undermines the agency’s credibility with millions of Americans,” he wrote.
Trump lashed out at Wray in a post on his Truth social network, saying, “No wonder the FBI once lost America’s trust!”
“No, unfortunately, a bullet hit my ear, and hit hard. No glass, no piece,” he wrote.
On Friday, he called Wray’s comments “very damaging to the great people who work at the FBI.”
Jackson has faced significant scrutiny over the years.
In 2018, Trump made headlines after a physical examination suggested that “if he had a healthy diet for the last 20 years, he could live to be 200.”
He was reportedly demoted by the Navy after becoming Inspector General of the Defense Department A top White House doctor issued a scathing statement about his conduct Jackson was found to have made “sexual and derogatory” comments about a female deputy and was taking prescription-strength sleeping pills, prompting concerns from his colleagues about his ability to provide proper medical care.
Trump appointed Wray as FBI director in 2017 to replace the fired James Comey. But as the bureau continued its investigation into Russian election meddling, the then-president quickly forfeited his pay.
Trump has openly flirted with the idea of firing Wray as his term ends, and he lashed out anew after the FBI executed a search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida to retrieve boxes of classified documents from his presidency.
___ Colvin reported from New York.
