Republican Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson, the former White House physician with direct knowledge about former President Donald Trumpâs ear wound, disputed FBI Director Christopher Wray on Friday after he previously questioned whether a bullet caused the former presidentâs injury.
Wray said on Wednesday that âthereâs some questionâ on whether Trump got hit by âa bullet or shrapnelâ during the July 13 assassination attempt while testifying to the House Judiciary Committee about the FBIâs handling of the incident. Jackson released a statement on Friday saying there is âabsolutely no evidenceâ anything other than a bullet injured Trumpâs upper right ear.
âDuring the Congressional Hearing two days ago, FBI Director Christopher Wray suggested that it could be a bullet, shrapnel, or glass,â Jackson wrote. âThere is absolutely no evidence that it was anything other than a bullet. Congress should correct the record as confirmed by both the hospital and myself. Director Wray is wrong and inappropriate to suggest anything else.â
Jackson said he has treated many gunshot wounds throughout his 20-year career as an emergency medicine physician in the U.S. Navy and as a combat physician in Iraq. He wrote in his assessment that he can âcompletely concurâ with the initial assessment and treatment provided to Trump at Butler Memorial Hospital, where he was treated for a gunshot wound to the ear.
Wray testified to the House Judiciary Committee that Trumpâs would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, used a semiautomatic AR-15-style rifle with a collapsible stock during the shooting. Trump exited the rally with blood dripping down his face from his upper right ear.
âI think with respect to former President Trump thereâs some question about whether or not itâs a bullet or shrapnel that, you know, that hit his ear,â Wray testified during the Wednesday hearing. âAs I sit here right now, I donât know if that bullet, in addition to causing the grazing, also could have landed somewhere else.â
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A photograph taken by The New York Timesâ Doug Mills showed a bullet flying directly near Trumpâs head just moments before he began bleeding.
Crooks fired eight rounds into the crowd, killing former volunteer fire chief Corey Comperatore and wounding two other attendees. He climbed onto the roof of a building unoccupied by authorities located 130 feet away from the rallyâs location.
The U.S. Secret Service and the FBI told lawmakers on Wednesday that authorities noticed Crooks approximately 50 minutes before Trump entered the stage. One source told senators that Crooks was spotted with a rangefinder, while others said they saw him standing on the rooftop with a firearm about 20 minutes before bullets were fired.
The incident led former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign from the agency on Tuesday following a tense hearing before the House Oversight Committee on Monday. Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and Ranking Member Jamie Raskin issued a joint statement on Monday following the hearing calling for her resignation, stating she âfailed to provide answersâ about the âstunning operational failureâ that occurred during the rally.
MSNBCâs Michael Steele and Ari Melber both raised questions surrounding the details of Trumpâs ear injury. Steele said on July 16 that there remain âa lot of questionsâ surrounding Trumpâs injury, while Melber suggested the bandage is a âpolitical questâ to gain sympathy and political clout.
MSNBC anchor Joy Reid suggested it may have been glass that injured Trump in a July 17 post on Threads.
The FBI declined to comment to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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