According to Daily Mail, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before Congress, casting doubt on whether former President Donald Trump was struck by a bullet during an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania.
Wray's remarks came as he updated lawmakers on the investigation into the attack, which resulted in the death of a firefighter and injuries to Trump and two others.
Wray highlighted uncertainty regarding the nature of the injury Trump sustained. He mentioned that it was unclear whether Trump was hit by a bullet or shrapnel during the attack.
"With respect to former President Trump, there’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear," Wray stated. He added, "I don't know right now whether that bullet, in addition to causing the grazing, could have landed somewhere else."
Thomas Matthew Crooks killed firefighter Corey Comperatore and injured two others, including Trump, during the rally. Trump was seen with a bandage over his ear following the incident.
Initial reports speculated that Trump might have been hit by glass from a teleprompter, but this theory was debunked as both glass screens were intact. Wray confirmed that a bullet or shrapnel grazed Trump's ear. The FBI is treating the incident as an act of domestic terrorism, given the premeditated nature of the attack and Crooks' background.
Crooks had researched the assassination of President Kennedy prior to the shooting. The FBI discovered a Google search by Crooks on July 6, inquiring about the distance from which Lee Harvey Oswald shot Kennedy.
"That's a search obviously that is significant in terms of his state of mind. That is the same day that it appears that he registered for the Trump rally," Wray explained to the House Judiciary Committee.
Despite extensive investigations, the FBI has yet to uncover a clear motive for the attack. "We do not know the motive. That is obviously one of the central questions in our investigation, and it's been very frustrating to us that a lot of the usual kind of low-hanging-fruit places that we would find have not yielded significant clues about his motive," Wray said.
The attack has prompted significant scrutiny of the security measures in place during the rally. Cheatle faced questions about why an agent was not stationed on the roof from where Crooks opened fire. Crooks had been identified as a suspicious person hours before the attack but was still able to access the roof and fire eight shots from an AR-style rifle before being killed by a sniper.
Trump, in his account of the shooting, described the harrowing moments when bullets were flying overhead. "When I went down, bullets were coming over my head and you hear them, it's like a zip, zip," Trump said. He credited a last-minute turn of the head for saving his life.
Trump criticized Wray's testimony and called for his resignation on Truth Social:
Wray should resign immediately from the FBI, and stop 'sweet talking' Congress every time he goes up, which he loves to do, because anybody can see that Joe Biden is cognitively and physically challenged.
FBI Director Christopher Wray's testimony before Congress has cast doubt on whether a bullet struck Donald Trump during the assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The attack, which resulted in the death of firefighter Corey Comperatore and injuries to Trump and two others, has led to significant scrutiny of security measures. The FBI is investigating the incident as an act of domestic terrorism, though a clear motive remains elusive. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned following the incident, and Trump has called for Wray's resignation. The investigation and its political implications continue to unfold as the presidential election approaches.
