Nearly two weeks after Donald Trump’s near assassination, the FBI confirmed on July 26 that it was indeed a bullet that struck the former President’s ear, moving to clear up conflicting accounts about what caused the former President’s injuries after a gunman opened fire at a Pennsylvania rally.

“What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject’s rifle,” the agency said in a statement.

The one-sentence statement from the FBI marked the most definitive law enforcement account of Trump’s injuries and followed ambiguous comments earlier in the week from Director Christopher Wray that appeared to cast doubt on whether Trump had actually been hit by a bullet.

The comment drew fury from Trump and his allies and further stoked conspiracy theories that have flourished on both sides of the political aisle amid a dearth of information following the July 13 attack.

Up until now, federal law enforcement agents involved in the investigation, including the FBI and Secret Service, had refused to provide information about what caused Trump’s injuries. Trump’s campaign has also declined to release medical records from the hospital where he was first treated or to make the doctors there available for questions.

Updates have instead come either from Trump himself or from Trump’s former White House doctor, Ronny Jackson, a staunch ally who now represents Texas in Congress. Though 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 apparent reluctance to immediately vouch for the former President’s version of events has also raised fresh tension between the Republican nominee and the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency, which he could soon exert control over once again. Trump and his supporters have for years accused federal law enforcement of being weaponized against him, something Wray has consistently denied.

Speaking at an event later Friday in West Palm Beach Florida, Trump drew boos from the crowd when he described the suggestion that he may have been struck by glass or shrapnel instead of a bullet.

“Did you see the FBI today apologized?” he asked. “It just never ends with these people. … We accept their apology.”

Trump appeared on July 26 for the first time without a bandage on his right ear. Photographs and video showed no sign of continued bleeding, and no distinct holes or gashes.

Questions about the extent and nature of Trump’s wound began immediately after the attack, as his campaign and law enforcement officials declined to answer questions about his condition or the treatment he received after Trump narrowly escaped death in an attempted assassination by a gunman with a high-powered rifle.

Those questions have persisted despite photographs showing the trace of a projectile speeding past Trump’s head as well as Trump’s teleprompter glass intact after the shooting, and the account Trump himself gave in a Truth Social post within hours of the shooting that he had been “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.”

“I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin,” he wrote.

Days later, in a speech accepting the nomination at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Trump recounted the scene in detail, while wearing a large gauze bandage over his right ear.

“I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me really, really hard, on my right ear. I said to myself, ‘Wow, what was that? It can only be a bullet,’” he said.

“If I had not moved my head at that very last instant,” Trump said, “the assassin’s bullet would have perfectly hit its mark, and I would not 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 it, he said the bullet that struck Trump had “produced a 2 cm wide wound that extended down to the cartilaginous surface of the ear.” He also revealed Trump had received a CT scan at the hospital.

Federal law enforcement involved in the investigation, including the FBI and Secret Service, had declined to confirm that account. And Wray’s testimony offered apparently conflicting answers on the issue.

“There’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear,” Wray said, before he seemed to suggest it was indeed a bullet.

“I don’t know whether that bullet, in addition to causing the grazing, could have also landed somewhere else,” he said.

On July 25, the FBI sought to clarify matters with a statement affirming that the shooting was an “attempted assassination of former President Trump which resulted in his injury, as well as the death of a heroic father and the injuries of several other victims.” The FBI also said Thursday that its Shooting Reconstruction Team continues 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 July 25 that any suggestion Trump’s ear was bloodied by anything other than a bullet was reckless.

“It was a bullet wound,” said Jackson. “You can’t make statements like that. It leads to all these conspiracy theories.”

In his letter on July 26, Jackson insisted “there is absolutely no evidence” Trump was struck by anything other than a bullet and said it was “wrong and inappropriate to suggest anything else.”

He wrote that at Butler Memorial Hospital, where the GOP nominee was rushed after the shooting, he was evaluated and treated for a “Gunshot Wound to the Right Ear.”

“Having served as an Emergency Medicine physician for over 20 years in the United States Navy, including as a combat physician on the battlefield in Iraq,” he wrote, “I have treated many gunshot wounds in my career. Based on my direct observations of the injury, my relevant clinical background, and my significant experience evaluating and treating patients with similar wounds, I completely concur with the initial assessment and treatment provided by the doctors at nurses at Butler Memorial Hospital on the day of the shooting.”

The FBI declined to comment on the Jackson letters.

Asked if the campaign would release those hospital records, or allow the doctors who treated him there to speak, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung blasted the media for asking.

“The media has no shame in engaging in disgusting conspiracy theories,” he said. “The facts are the facts, and to question an abhorrent assassination attempt that ultimately cost a life and injured two others is beyond the pale.”

In emails last week, he told the AP that “medical readouts” had already been provided.

“It’s sad some people still don’t believe a shooting happened,” Cheung said, “even after one person was killed and others were injured.”

Anyone who believes the conspiracies, he added, “is either mentally deficient or willfully peddling falsehoods for political reasons.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a close Trump ally, also urged Wray to correct his testimony in a letter on July 26, saying the fact Trump had been hit by a bullet “was made clear in briefings my office received and should not be a point of contention.”

“As head of the FBI, you should not be creating confusion about such matters, as it further undercuts the agency’s credibility with millions of Americans,” he wrote.

Trump also lashed out at Wray in a post on his Truth Social network, saying it was “No wonder the once storied FBI has lost the confidence of America!”

“No, it was, unfortunately, a bullet that hit my ear, and hit it hard. There was no glass, there was no shrapnel,” he wrote.

On Friday, he called Wray’s comments “so damaging to the Great People that work in the FBI.”

Jackson has encountered significant scrutiny over the years.

After administering a physical to Trump in 2018, he drew headlines for suggesting that “if he had a healthier diet over the last 20 years, he might live to be 200 years old.”

He was reportedly demoted by the Navy after the Department of Defense inspector general released a scathing report on his conduct as a top White House physician that found Jackson had made “sexual and denigrating” comments about a female subordinates and took prescription-strength sleeping medication that prompted worries 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 the then-President swiftly soured on his hire as the bureau continued its investigation into the Russian election interference.

Trump flirted openly with the idea of firing Wray as his term drew to a close, and he lashed out anew after the FBI executed a search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida to recover boxes of classified documents from his presidency.

Washington:

Former US president Donald Trump was indeed hit by an assassin’s bullet or a fragment of one, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said Friday, putting to rest questions over the nature of the Republican candidate’s wounding at a campaign rally this month.

“What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject’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 deemed the assault — in which a gunman fired eight bullets from outside the event’s security perimeter — an assassination attempt.

But FBI chief Christopher Wray told US lawmakers on Wednesday that there was some doubt as to “whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that, you know, that hit his ear.”

Following the new statement from the FBI — which Trump has long alleged is part of a “deep state” conspiring against him — the Republican posted on his Truth Social platform: “I assume that’s the best apology that we’ll get from Director Wray, but it is fully accepted!”

Earlier Friday, he posted a letter from his former White House doctor saying the wound was almost certainly due to a bullet.

“There is absolutely no evidence that it was anything other than a bullet,” wrote Ronny Jackson, now a Republican congressman from Texas, on Truth Social.

Two rally attendees were seriously wounded in the attack, and a 50-year-old Pennsylvania firefighter was shot dead, according to officials. The gunman was killed by a US Secret Service sniper.

Since the shooting, Trump has made the attack a key part of his campaign pitch, telling a crowd in Michigan that he “took a bullet for democracy.”

At the Republican National Convention where he was anointed the party’s nominee for president, Trump said he had “God on my side” as he described the attack.

And at Trump rallies, many of the former president’s supporters have taken to wearing bandages on their right ears, a reference to the attack.

On Thursday, Trump had also denied Wray’s comments and accused him of political partisanship.

“It was, unfortunately, a bullet that hit my ear, and hit it hard. There was no glass, there was no shrapnel,” he said.

A New York Times investigation published Friday said “a detailed analysis of bullet trajectories, footage, photos and audio… strongly suggests 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 physician, instead quoting Jackson — a former White House physician who is a staunch political ally of the ex-president.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Republican Presidential nominee and former President Donald J. Trump attends a public campaign at the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan on July 20, 2024. This is also Trump’s first public rally since he was shot in an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania on July 13
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

Donald Trump said on July 20 nobody warned him of a problem in the lead-up to the former president’s rally in Pennsylvania last week when a would-be assassin shot him in the ear.

“Nobody mentioned it, nobody said there was a problem. I would’ve waited for 15, they could’ve said let’s wait for 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 5 minutes, something. Nobody said,” Mr. Trump told Fox News in an interview. “I think that was a mistake,” he added. “How did somebody get on that roof? And why wasn’t he reported?”

The Washington Post on Saturday reported that top officials at the U.S. Secret Service repeatedly rejected requests from Mr. Trump’s security detail for more manpower and gear at events before the attempted assassination. The agency, which is responsible for Mr. Trump’s protection, denied these requests, saying at times that it lacked resources, the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Editorial | Dodging bullets: On an assassination bid and U.S. politics

The Secret Service did not immediately respond outside regular office hours to a Reuters request for comment.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is set to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee on July 22 for a hearing related to the shooting at Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania last week.

Police and members of the community gather at the site of a shooting death of a homeless man near the site of the Republican National Convention (RNC) on the second day of the event on July 16, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images via AFP

Ohio police officers in Wisconsin for the Republican National Convention shot and killed a man who was wielding two knives near the convention, Milwaukee’s police chief said on July 16.

Five members of the Columbus, Ohio, police department fired on the man, who had a knife in each hand, refused police commands and charged at an unarmed man before police fired, Milwaukee Chief Jeffrey Norman said at a news conference. Two knives were recovered from the scene, the chief said.

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Police released body camera footage that showed officers on bikes talking before one of them says, “He’s got a knife.”

Several officers then yell “Drop the knife!” as they run toward two men standing in a street. When the armed man moved toward the unarmed man, police fired their weapons.

“Someone’s life was in danger,” Norman said. “These officers, who were not from this area, took it upon themselves to act and save someone’s life today.”

Thousands of officers from multiple jurisdictions are in Milwaukee providing additional security for the convention that began Monday and concludes Thursday.

The shooting fueled anger from residents who questioned why out-of-state officers were in their neighborhood located about a mile from the convention site.

The Columbus Division of Police, as well as the chief of staff for Milwaukee’s mayor and a spokesperson for the convention’s joint command center, all said there was nothing to suggest the shooting was related to the convention itself.

A cousin and others identified the man killed as 43-year-old Samuel Sharpe.

Milwaukee residents and activists quickly converged on the site of the shooting, many of them expressing outrage about the involvement of a police department in town because of the convention. They held a nighttime vigil.

“They came into our community and shot down our family right here at a public park,” said Linda Sharpe, a cousin of the man who was killed. “What are you doing in our city, shooting people down?”

Sharpe said her cousin lived in a tent encampment across the street from King Park, where the shooting occurred.

Residents said the encampment was a long-standing feature of the neighbourhood, which is home to several social service clinics and a shelter. Some said Milwaukee police officers are familiar with many of those living in the tents and might have been able to deescalate the situation.

David Porter, who said he knew Sharpe and is also homeless, was angry that officers from outside of Milwaukee were in his neighborhood.

“If MPD would have been there, that man would still be alive right now,” Porter said, referring to Milwaukee police.

Norman, the Milwaukee chief, said 13 officers who were part of a bicycle patrol from Columbus were within their assigned zone having a meeting when they saw the altercation.

“The officers observed a subject armed with a knife in each hand, engaged in an altercation with another unarmed individual,” Norman said. They only fired after the armed man ignored multiple commands and moved toward the unarmed man, the chief said.

“This is a situation where somebody’s life was in immediate danger,” Norman said.

The Columbus Division of Police has received attention because of its special unit deployed to Milwaukee that works to improve police-community relationships and had a visible role in guiding the largely uneventful protests on Monday.

The shooting happened near King Park, roughly a mile from the convention center, where a small group of protesters gathered before marching on Monday. That demonstration was followed by dozens of Columbus police officers, wearing blue vests that read: “Columbus Police Dialogue.”

The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office said an autopsy was scheduled for Wednesday.

Over 30 hours after a bullet pierced Donald Trump’s ear at a rally ahead of the US’ biggest election, the motive behind the high-profile assassination attempt remains unknown. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has begun probing the incident as a “potential domestic terrorism act”.

Thomas Crooks, the 20-year-old gunman who opened fire at Trump, was shot dead on the spot by Secret Service snipers. He appears to have acted alone but there’s more to the probe, said the FBI.

Senior FBI official Robert Wells said the counterterrorism division and criminal divisions are working together to determine the motive.

Officials also said Crooks did not carry any identity document to the rally and are trying to run a DNA test to get biometric confirmation.

Even the suspect’s father, Matthew Crooks, 53, is trying to figure out what happened. He told CNN he would wait until he spoke to law enforcement before speaking about his son.

Saturday’s attack left Trump with a bloodied face, sparking a wave of sympathy for the Republican who is set to be Presidential nominee for the third time. Trump, who believes the attack has changed election discourse, is now trying to galvanize his supporters by exhibiting defiant resilience.

Conspiracy theories claim the attack was “staged”, pointing to the “iconic” pic showing Trump with a bloodied face holding his fist in air – most of the claims came from the left-leaning users, usually seen as anti-Trump.

Who is Thomas Crooks?

Thomas Crooks was a 20-year-old resident of Pennsylvania. He graduated from Bethel Park High School, Penn in 2022. State voter records showed he was a registered Republican – a member of Trump’s party.

Meanwhile, a 2021 Federal Election Commission filing suggests Crooks had made a $15 donation when he was 17 to a political action committee that raises money for left-leaning and Democratic politicians.

He had received a $500 “star award” from the National Math and Science Initiative, according to Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

The crowd reacts as Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents at a campaign event in Butler, Pa., on July 13, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

A witness to the July 13 shooting at a Donald Trump rally told how a man next to him was shot dead during the apparent assassination attempt on the Republican presidential candidate.

“I heard several gunshots. The man beside me suffered a gun shot to the head, was instantly killed [and] fell to the bottom of the bleachers. Another woman looked like she got hit in the forearm or hand,” the man, whose name was only given as Joseph, told NBC News.

Trump rally shooting live updates: July 14, 2024

He said it seemed the victim was “in the way of the shots between whoever was shooting the gun and the President.”

A second witness, an unnamed man who said he was an emergency doctor, described trying to help one of the victims.

“Somebody over there was screaming he’s been shot, he’s been shot, so I made my way over, I said I’m an emergency department physician, let me help you,” said the man, who was wearing a white USA T-shirt stained with blood and a red MAGA hat.

“The guy had spun around, was jammed between the benches. He had a headshot here,” he said, indicating a spot on his head.

“There’s lots of blood and he had brain matter,” the man continued in comments that spread widely through US media.

Trump said he was hit in the ear but was not seriously injured by the gunman, who was killed after the incident.

Two other spectators were critically injured, the Secret Service said.