(Washington) The FBI confirmed Friday that Donald Trump was indeed injured by a “whole or fragmented” bullet during his assassination attempt, after strong criticism from the former president accusing the US federal police of maintaining vagueness on the subject.
The Republican presidential candidate in November was targeted by gunfire on July 13 during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania and suffered minor injuries to the ear.
“What hit former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into small pieces,” the FBI said in a statement Friday, in response to criticism from Donald Trump.
PHOTO ALEX BRANDON, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump
“I imagine this is the best apology we’ll get from Director Wray, but it’s fully accepted!” the former president responded on his Truth Social platform.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday that there were doubts as to whether it was “a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear” during a hearing in the US Congress.
Remarks denounced by Donald Trump, accusing the FBI of having a political bias: “Unfortunately, it was indeed a bullet that hit my ear.” […] there was no glass, no sparkle.”
On the same day of the assassination attempt, Donald Trump said he had been “hit by a bullet that pierced the top of my right ear.” In front of his supporters, he then declared that he had “taken a bullet for democracy.”
Christopher Wray provided the first official comment from the US federal police on the matter, as no medical or police report had previously specified the nature of Donald Trump’s injury.
According to an article in the New York Times published Friday, “a detailed analysis of the trajectories of the bullets, images, photos and sound recordings […] strongly suggests that Mr. Trump was grazed by the first of eight bullets fired.”
The shooting left one participant dead and two injured, with the shooter shot dead by Mr Trump’s security guards.