Janice R. Andrews
FBI Director Christopher Wray told senators in an eye-opening, lengthy speech on Wednesday that the probe into the murder attempt on former President Donald Trump is still ongoing. Trump suffered a slight injury to his right ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, although it’s unclear what kind of projectile it was—shrapnel or a bullet.
In response to a query from Representative Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.), Wray said, “My understanding is that what grazed his ear was either a bullet or some shrapnel.” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the chair of the committee, repeated this ambiguity later in the hearing when he questioned about the trajectory and ultimate positions of the eight rounds fired by the attacker, Thomas Matthew Crooks. “As I sit here right now, I don’t know whether that bullet, in addition to causing the grazing, could have also landed somewhere else,” Wray said, acknowledging that there was some doubt as to whether or not a bullet or shrapnel struck his ear.
Since then, there has been a lot of attention focused on the event, which happened during Trump’s speech at the rally. Shortly after the attempt, Trump stated that the bullet “came within a quarter of an inch of taking my life” during a speech at the Republican National Convention. “I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me really, really hard on my right ear,” he said, describing the incident with vivid detail.
“It [the bullet] was far enough away from his head that there was no concussive effect from the bullet, and it just took the top of his ear off,” said Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), the former doctor for Trump in the White House, after reviewing the wound.
New information has surfaced as the FBI conducts its investigation, including Crooks’ efforts to find out how far away the gunman was from President Kennedy in 1963. This revelation gives Crooks’ premeditation an even more sinister undertone.
Wray’s testimony at the hearing offered some valuable insights, but it also raised important concerns that went unaddressed, leading to more conjecture and investigation. Never one to hold back when making public remarks, Trump took to Truth Social during the hearing to call for Wray’s resignation—not because of the assassination investigation, but rather because of Wray’s comments regarding his meetings with President Biden, which he described as “uneventful and unremarkable.”
The mystery surrounding the precise type of the missile that hit Trump remains a major focus as the inquiry moves further. The FBI’s ongoing investigation seeks to shed light on and resolve this well-known case.
