Nearly two weeks after Donald Trump's near assassination, the FBI confirmed Friday 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, per the AP. 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 isn't Trump's primary care physician.
The FBI's apparent reluctance to immediately vouch for Trump's version of events has also raised fresh tension between the GOP nominee and the 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 Friday for the first time without a bandage on his right ear. Photos and video showed no sign of continued bleeding, and no distinct holes or gashes. More here.
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