Trump’s right ear was covered in blood on July 13.
Washington:
Former US President Donald Trump was in fact hit by an assassin’s bullet or a fragment of one, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Friday, putting to rest questions about the nature of the Republican candidate’s wound in a campaign rally this month.
“What struck former President Trump’s ear was a bullet, either whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased’s rifle,” the FBI said in a statement.
Trump’s right ear was covered in blood on July 13 after he was injured during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
The FBI considered the attack – in which a gunman fired eight bullets from outside the event’s security perimeter – an attempted murder.
But FBI chief Christopher Wray told U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday that there was some question about “whether or not it was a bullet or shrapnel that, you know, hit his ear.”
Following the new statement from the FBI – which Trump has long claimed is part of a “deep state” conspiring against him – the Republican posted on his Truth Social platform: “I assume this is the best apology we will receive from the director. Wray, but it’s totally accepted!”
On Friday, he posted a letter from his former White House doctor saying the wound was almost certainly caused by a bullet.
“There is absolutely no evidence that it was anything other than a bullet,” Ronny Jackson, now a Republican congressman from Texas, wrote in Truth Social.
Two rally attendees were seriously injured in the attack, and a 50-year-old Pennsylvania firefighter was shot to death, authorities said. The shooter was killed by a US Secret Service sniper.
Since the shooting, Trump has made the attack a key part of his campaign speech, telling a crowd in Michigan that he “took a bullet for democracy.”
At the Republican National Convention, where he was elected the party’s nominee for president, Trump said he had “God on my side” when describing the attack.
And at Trump rallies, many of the former president’s supporters began wearing bandages over their right ears, a reference to the attack.
On Thursday, Trump also denied Wray’s comments and accused him of political partisanship.
“It was, unfortunately, a bullet that hit my ear, and hit hard. There was no glass, there was no shrapnel,” he said.
A New York Times investigation published Friday said “a detailed analysis of the bullet trajectories, images, photos and audio… strongly suggests that Mr. Trump was grazed by the first of eight bullets fired by the gunman.” .
Trump’s campaign has not released any medical reports or statements from his current doctor, instead citing Jackson — a former White House doctor who is a strong political ally of the former president.
(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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