FBI Director Christopher Wray testified Wednesday during a series of testimony that investigators still do not know whether former President Donald Trump was hit by a bullet or shrapnel during his assassination attempt.
Twice during the hours-long session, Wray told lawmakers that the FBI was still trying to determine what exactly hit the former president in his right ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. “My understanding is that it was either [a bullet] or shrapnel grazed his ear,” Wray told Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.).
Later in the hearing, committee chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) asked Wray if investigators knew where all eight bullets fired by Thomas Matthew Crooks after the shooting ended up.
“There's some question as to whether it was a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear, so it's conceivable, as I sit here now, that I don't know if that bullet, besides causing the graze, could have gone somewhere else,” Wray testified.
Jordan asked no further questions about the shrapnel.
Trump says he 'took a bullet for democracy' during campaign speech in Michigan
During a speech at the Republican National Convention days after the assassination attempt, Trump said the bullet “came almost a quarter inch short of my life.”
“I heard a loud whooshing sound and felt something hit my right ear really hard,” the former president described the scene.
Trump's former White House physician, Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), later told a conservative talk show that he had examined the wound in the days immediately following the shooting. “It [the bullet] was far enough away from his head that the bullet had no concussive effect, and only tore off the top of his ear.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray: “With respect to former President Trump, there is some question as to whether it was a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear.” photo.twitter.com/3TNjLZp4S1
— Republicans Against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) July 25, 2024
As the investigation into the attempted assassination continues, Wray offered the committee some new insights, including the revelation that Crooks sought to investigate how far removed the shooter was from former President John F. Kennedy when he was killed in 1963.
Trump responded with a message on Truth Social while the hearing was still ongoing, calling on Wray to resign, but not for what he said about the assassination attempt. Instead, Trump criticized the FBI director for claiming that he found his interactions with President Biden “boring and unremarkable.”
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