Was Trump shot or not? Trump’s campaign and the FBI weigh in

On Saturday, July 13, shocked viewers around the nation saw former President Donald Trump narrowly avoid an assassination attempt on live television, per Newsweek. The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was immediately killed by a Secret Service sniper, while guards surrounded Trump and escorted him to safety.

On July 24, FBI Director Christopher Wray told members of Congress that it was unclear whether an actual bullet or shrapnel hit Trump’s ear. Meanwhile, Trump’s doctor said Trump received a bullet wound and asked Wray to correct the record.

Late Friday, the FBI said Trump’s ear was hit by a bullet, “whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject’s rifle,” according to a NBC News correspondent.

This disagreement is only the latest trouble between Republicans and the FBI, which has been accused of showing political bias.

What the FBI is saying

The FBI Shooting Reconstruction Team are investigating the assassination attempt at the scene of the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, examining debris and measuring distances, per ABC News. The investigation is ongoing, but on Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee convened to receive updates.

“There’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that hit (Trump’s) ear,” Wray said when answering whether or not the FBI has yet found all the bullets Crooks shot. “It’s conceivable — although as I sit here right now, I don’t know whether that bullet, in addition to causing the grazing, could have also landed somewhere else.”

The FBI has not contested that the shooting was an attempt on Trump’s life, per a spokesperson’s remarks to Newsweek.

Nevertheless, the uncertainty created by Wray’s testimony reignited accusations that the FBI has a left-leaning political agenda.

As the Deseret News previously reported, perceptions of partisanship have already affected how some local law enforcement agencies cooperate with the FBI.

A piece published by the New York Post says that many officers disagree with the FBI’s approach to the Jan. 6 riot, while some personnel have been accused of a bias against Trump and other Republicans.

As a result, some agencies are increasingly slow to share information with the FBI — including “actionable, substantive information on criminal and other intelligence-related activity.”

What Trump and his allies are saying

Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, who was Trump’s doctor during his presidential tenure, cared for the former president after the shooting, per Fox News.

“There is absolutely no evidence that it was anything other than a bullet,” Jackson said in response to Wray’s testimony. “Congress should correct the record as confirmed by both the hospital and myself. Director Wray is wrong and inappropriate to suggest anything else.”

“This degrades any level of credibility that this man (Wray) may have had — after years of weaponizing the FBI and the DOJ against the president,” Jackson later said in an interview on Fox Business. “It was absolutely a bullet, I examined it. There was a track of a bullet.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., have also weighed in, according to Fox News.

Graham sent a letter to Wray asking him to “correct” his testimony, while Johnson, who was present at the House Judicial Committee hearing, said: “We’ve all seen the video, we’ve seen the analysis, we’ve heard it from multiple sources on different angles that a bullet went through his ear. I’m not sure it matters that much.”

Meanwhile, Trump took to Truth Social.

“No, it was, unfortunately, a bullet that hit my ear, and hit it hard,” he posted. “There was no glass, there was no shrapnel. The hospital called it a ‘bullet wound to the ear,’ and that is what it was.”

“We don’t have any confidence in the No. 1 law enforcement agency in this country right now,” said Jackson, per Fox News. “If (Wray’s) going to come make statements like that, he better have some evidence of what he’s talking about.”