The New York Times and Donald Trump’s personal physician have both concluded that the former president was struck by a bullet, and not “shrapnel” as FBI Director Christopher Wray suggested.
In testimony to the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Wray told lawmakers that “there’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that, you know, hit [Trump’s] ear” when a gunman opened fire on Trump at a campaign rally earlier this month.
Wray’s statement appeared to validate theories circulating online since the shooting, which claimed that Trump was stricken by a piece of broken glass from his teleprompter rather than the would-be assassin’s bullet.
After venting at Wray on his Truth Social platform on Friday, Trump shared a letter from his physician, Ronny Jackson, who stated that “there is no evidence that it was anything other than a bullet,” and that “Director Wray is wrong and inappropriate to suggest anything else.”
“Having served as an Emergency Medicine physician for over 20 years in the United States Navy…I have treated many gunshot wounds in my career,” Jackson noted.
In an article published later on Friday, the New York Times concurred with Jackson. “A detailed analysis of bullet trajectories, footage, photos and audio by The New York Times strongly suggests Mr. Trump was grazed by the first of eight bullets fired by the gunman,” the newspaper stated.
A 3D model of the rally grounds plus a “trajectory analysis show that the bullet traveled in a straight line from the gunman to the bleachers, clipping Mr. Trump on its path. This suggests the bullet was not deflected by first striking an object that would have then sprayed Mr. Trump with debris,” the newspaper explained.
The gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, killed one spectator and injured two others before he was shot dead by Secret Service snipers. Before he was led away from the stage by Secret Service agents, Trump rose to his feet and pumped his fist in the air, his ear visibly bleeding and his face streaked with blood.
In the days after the shooting, Republicans fiercely criticized the Secret Service for failing to secure Crooks’ rooftop vantage point, despite it being around 150 meters from the stage where Trump stood, and for apparently disregarding reports of an armed Crooks crawling around on the roof minutes before opening fire.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned on Tuesday, a day after telling the Oversight Committee that she took responsibility for the “most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades.”
“The biggest mistake they made is allowing me to go,” Trump told Fox News on Thursday “They shouldn’t have let me go on the stage. Different groups of people knew there was some nut job on the roof.”