WASHINGTON — The FBI is examining numerous metal fragments found near the stage at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, to determine whether a potential assassin’s bullet — or possibly debris — struck the former president of the United States. Donald Trump‘s head, with blood from his right ear, the FBI and a federal law enforcement official said.
The agency has requested an interview with Trump as part of its broader investigation, hoping to gain insight into the shooting and possibly a more complete account of his injuries, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.
Unanswered questions remain about the object that struck the Republican presidential candidate since the July 13 shooting. Trump claimed he was struck by a bullet and attributed his survival to divine intervention.
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FBI officials are more cautious, pointing out that the evidence must be analyzed before determining what hit Trump: a bullet, a piece of metal or something else.
The bureau’s shooting reconstruction team “continues to examine evidence from the scene, including bullet fragments, and the investigation is ongoing,” the FBI said in a statement Thursday. In addition to wounding Trump, the shooter, Thomas Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, shot three rally attendees, one fatally.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung declined to say whether the agency had requested to see the former president’s medical records after the incident. Trump has not made them public.
FBI officials consider the identification of the projectile important, but not a central focus of a wide-ranging criminal investigation into the shooter’s actions. They are keenly interested in Crooks’ reasoning or any indication that he may have had an accomplice or other help. So far, they have found no motive or conspirator.
“The bureau’s priority is to determine if anyone assisted the shooter and to eliminate any ongoing threat,” said Michael Harrigan, a former FBI special agent who led the bureau’s firearms training unit in Quantico, Virginia.
“From an investigative standpoint, it’s not that important to know what happened to the president’s ear,” he added.
From a political point of view this is of great importance.
“With regard to former President Trump, there is some question as to whether it was a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear,” FBI Director Christopher Wray told Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, on Wednesday.
The statement sparked fierce backlash and sustained Republican attacks on Wray.
“It’s shocking that Christopher Wray doesn’t know the facts, but that probably says more about his job performance – or lack thereof – than anything else,” Cheung said.
Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, told NBC on Thursday: “We’ve all seen the video, we’ve seen the analysis, we’ve heard from multiple sources from multiple angles that a bullet went through his ear.”
“There is a lot of frustration and concern about the leadership of these agencies,” Johnson added.
In a social media post Thursday night, Trump lashed out at Wray, saying, “No wonder the once-famous FBI has lost America’s trust!”
Trump said there was no glass or shards. “No, unfortunately it was a bullet that hit my ear, and hard.”
The FBI said in a statement that the bureau “has been consistent and clear that the shooting was an attempted assassination of former President Trump, resulting in his injuries, as well as the death of a heroic father and the injuries of several other victims.”
It’s not unusual for the type of bullet Crooks fired from his AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle to roll over and break up after striking even a small solid object. Firearms experts say a fragment could have struck a metal post, for example.
Still, a bullet could have hit Trump’s ear, and the FBI hasn’t ruled it out. Investigators found eight shotgun shells on the roof where the shooter was located.
It’s unclear whether investigators have eliminated other possible sources of debris. But agency analysts appear to be focusing on metal fragments, as opposed to glass from the teleprompters on stage. Photos of the teleprompters next to Trump show they were intact after the bullets were fired.
FBI analysts are also examining still images and other electronic evidence for clues.
Weapons experts said the FBI could rely on trajectory analysis, a physical examination of each connected bullet and the president’s wound, to potentially piece together what happened. A detailed analysis of bullet trajectories, footage, photos and audio by The New York Times strongly suggests that Trump was grazed by the first of eight bullets fired by Crooks.
The agency could also get lucky and find the former president’s DNA on a piece of the bullet. But even that probably wouldn’t be able to determine whether a fragment or the actual bullet hit his ear.
There is another scenario investigators are likely to explore: that the bullet, deadly but fragile, may have fragmented after hitting Trump’s ear.
“The problem with a bullet traveling at 3,200 feet per second is that it fragments very easily if it hits a surface before the target hits it,” Harrigan said. “It’s going to be hard to say definitively with the fragmentation what happened.”
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