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The FBI said Thursday that investigators continue to examine bullet fragments and other evidence in the attack on Donald Trump at his Pennsylvania rally this month, but the agency has always considered the shooting an attempted assassination of the former president.
“Since the day of the attack, the FBI has been consistent and clear that the shooting was an attempted assassination of former President Trump which resulted in his injury, as well as the death of a heroic father and the injuries of several other victims,” the agency said in a statement.
The agency said it “is devoting enormous resources” to its ongoing investigation of the “heinous attack” and its shooting reconstruction team “continues to examine evidence from the scene.” The FBI is also seeking to interview Trump to obtain a victim statement, a standard part of the investigation since he is the victim of a crime, according to a US official.
The bureau issued the statement in response to questions about FBI Director Christopher Wray’s testimony on Capitol Hill Wednesday about the shooting, in which he said there’s still “some question” about whether Trump was hit with a bullet or shrapnel.
“As I said, I think with respect to former President Trump, there’s some question about whether or not it’s bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear,” Wray said.
Republicans, including the former president, have seized on the statement to raise questions about Wray’s leadership of the agency.
“No, it was, unfortunately, a bullet that hit my ear, and hit it hard. There was no glass, there was no shrapnel,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday. “No wonder the once storied FBI has lost the confidence of America!”
House Speaker Mike Johnson also expressed skepticism of the FBI director’s testimony.
“We’ve all seen the video, we’ve seen the analysis, we’ve heard it from multiple sources in different angles that a bullet went through his ear. I’m not sure it matters that much,” Johnson told NBC Thursday, adding that Wray “was not forthcoming with some of the information that we would expect.”
“There’s a lot of frustration and concern about the leadership with these agencies,” he said.
During Wednesday’s wide-ranging House Judiciary hearing, Wray shared new details with lawmakers about Trump’s would-be assassin, including that he searched for details of the John F. Kennedy shooting from his laptop and flew a drone in the area near the rally just two hours before the former president took the stage.
Despite later criticism from Republicans about the FBI’s pending conclusions about the nature of the projectile, Wray was commended by representatives on both sides of the aisle for offering new insight into details about the investigation into the gunman. Those bipartisan expressions of appreciation stood in stark contrast to earlier testimony by then-Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned Tuesday after Democrats and Republicans accused her of stonewalling them and demanded her ouster.
When asked Wednesday about how close the “assassin’s bullet” came to killing the former president, Wray said, “My understanding is that either it or some shrapnel is what, you know, grazed his ear.” He then agreed that it came very close to killing the former president.
The director again noted that the shooter fired eight times, and said he believes that investigators know which shot nearly killed Trump.
“The very first one was the one that hit the president. Is that the very first shot? Or is that not accurate?” Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan asked.
“As I sit here right now, I don’t know the answer to that,” Wray responded. “I believe we know the answer to that. I just don’t have it in front of me.”
CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz contributed to this report.
