WASHINGTON: Nearly two weeks after Donald Trump was nearly killed, the FBI confirmed on Friday that a bullet had indeed struck the former president's ear, moving to clarify the accounts. conflict over why the former president was injured after a gunman opened fire at a protest in Pennsylvania. .
“What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, either whole or broken into pieces, fired from a dead rifle,” the agency said in a statement.
The statement from the FBI marked the latest law enforcement account of Trump's injuries and followed vague comments earlier in the week from director Christopher Wray that appeared to put doubt whether Trump was actually hit by a bullet.
The comment sparked outrage from Trump and his allies and fueled conspiracy theories that have flourished on both sides of the political aisle amid a lack of information. after the July 13 attack.
To date, federal law enforcement officials involved in the investigation, including the FBI and the Secret Service, have repeatedly refused to provide information about why Trump was injured. Trump's campaign has also refused to release medical records from the hospital where he was first treated or to have his doctor give him questions.
Updates come from Trump himself or from former White House physician Ronny Jackson, a close associate who currently represents Texas in Congress. Although Jackson has been treating Trump since the night of the attack, he has come under intense scrutiny and is not Trump's primary physician.
The FBI's apparent skepticism over the meaning of the former president's actions — along with the anger of some of his supporters and supporters in the office after the shooting — has sparked new tensions. of Republican appointees and the nation's premier federal law enforcement agency. , which he could do again soon.
Trump and his supporters have repeatedly accused federal law enforcement of arming them.
Questions about the extent of Trump's injuries began immediately after the attack, as he refused to answer questions about his condition or the treatment he received after Trump narrowly escaped death by assassination attempt. Trump is a man with a gun. powerful gun.
Those questions persisted despite footage showing the trajectory of a speeding projectile over Trump's head, footage showing Trump's teleprompter mirror blank after the shooting, and Trump's own account provided in a Truth Social post within hours of the shooting saying he had been “shot.” with a bullet that pierced the tip of my right ear”.
“I immediately knew something was wrong when I heard a pop, a shot, and I immediately felt the bullet go through my skin,” he wrote.
Days later, in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Trump described the horrific scene in detail, while wearing a large, white, gauze band around his ear. right
“I heard a loud whistling sound and felt something hit me very hard in my right ear.” I thought to myself, 'Wow, what is that? It could be a bullet,'” he said.
“If I hadn't moved my head at that last moment,” Trump said, “the assassin's bullet would have hit me completely, and I wouldn't be here tonight.”
But the first medical account of Trump's condition didn't come until a full week after the shooting, when Jackson released his first letter last Saturday evening. In that letter, he said that the bullet that hit Trump “produced a wound 2 cm wide that extends to the cartilaginous part of the ear.” He also said that Trump received a CT scan at the hospital.
But federal law enforcement involved in the investigation, including the FBI and the Secret Service, declined to confirm that account. And Wray's testimony provided a seemingly contradictory answer to the issue.
“There's a question as to whether it was a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear,” Wray confirmed, before saying it was indeed a bullet.
“I don't know if this bullet could have landed somewhere else, apart from causing the grass,” he said.
The next day, the FBI sought to clarify the situation with a statement confirming that the shooting was “an assassination attempt on former President Trump that resulted in his injury, as well as the death of the father of the family.” hero and the injury of many others.” The FBI also said Thursday that the Shooting Reconstruction team is 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 any suggestion that Trump's ear was bleeding from something other than bullets.
“It was bullet money,” Jackson said. “You cannot make such a statement. This leads to all these conspiracy theories. “
In his letter on Friday, Jackson insisted there was “absolutely no evidence” Trump was hit by anything other than a bullet and said it was “false and wrong to suggest anything else.”
He wrote that at Butler Memorial Hospital, where the GOP candidate was able to be appointed after the shooting, he was evaluated and treated for a “gunshot wound to the right ear.”
“I have served as an emergency medic for over 20 years in the US Navy, including as a combat medic in Iraq,” he wrote. Based on my direct observation of injuries, my related medical background, and my significant experience in evaluating and treating patients with similar injuries, I fully agree with the evaluation and initial treatment provided by the nurses at Butler Memorial Hospital on the day of the shooting.”
The FBI declined to comment on Jackson's letters.
Asked whether the campaign would release those hospital records, or allow the doctors who treated him to speak, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung blasted the media.
“The media is not shy about engaging in disgusting conspiracy theories,” he said. “Facts are facts, and the question of a heinous attempted murder that claimed one life and injured two others is meaningless.”
In an email last week, he told the AP that a “medical reading” had been given.
“Unfortunately, some still don't believe that a shooting took place,” Cheung said, “even though one person was killed and injured.”
Anyone who believes in a conspiracy, he added, “is either demented or deliberately peddling lies for political reasons.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R.C., a close Trump ally, urged Wray to correct his testimony in a letter Friday to the FBI director, saying the the fact that Trump was hit by a bullet “was clear from the speech received by my office. and should not be a point of contention”.
“As the head of the FBI, you should not create confusion about such matters, because it further undermines the trust of the agency among millions of Americans,” he wrote.
Trump also criticized Wray in a post on the social network Truth Social, saying “No wonder America has lost trust in the old FBI!”
“No, unfortunately, a bullet hit my ear, and hit it hard. There was no glass, no debris,” he wrote.
On Friday, he called Wray's comments “very damaging to the adults who work at the FBI.”
Jackson has faced significant scrutiny over the years.
After Trump's physical administration in 2018, he made headlines for suggesting that “if he had a healthy diet for the last 20 years, he could be 200 years old.”
He was reportedly fired by the Navy after the Defense Department's inspector general released a scathing report on his conduct as the White House's top physician that found Jackson made “sexual and derogatory” comments about women under a woman's power and took sleeping pills. caused concern from his colleagues about his ability to provide adequate treatment.
Trump appointed Wray in 2017 to replace the fired James Comey as FBI director. But the then-president quickly discouraged his pay as the office continued to investigate Russian election meddling.
Trump has openly discussed the idea of firing Wray when his term ends, and he struck again after the FBI executed a search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. to retrieve a box of classified documents from his office.
