FBI Director Christopher Wray has raised doubts as to whether or not Donald Trump was struck by a bullet during the assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally earlier this month.
Wray testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday about the ongoing investigation into the attempt on the former president’s life and the response of law enforcement agencies that day.
When questioned by committee chairman Jim Jordan as to whether the FBI had accounted for all of the bullets at the scene, Wray said that eight spent rounds were recovered from the rooftop of the building from which the gunman opened fire.
“With respect to former president Trump, there’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear,” the FBI chief added.
“As I sit here right now, I don’t know whether that bullet… in addition to causing the grazing, could have landed somewhere else.”
He added: “But I believe we’ve accounted for all the shots in the cartridges.”
Gunman Thomas Crooks fired a volley of eight rounds towards Trump using an AR-15 rifle while the former president stood on stage speaking to rallygoers in Butler, Pennsylvania, killing one rallygoer and wounding two others.
Former White House physician Ronny Jackson has said that Trump was shot in the ear creating a 2cm-wide wound, according to a memo shared with Axios.
The former president has also repeatedly said that he was struck in the ear by a bullet.
Wray’s testimony came as pressure grows on authorities to explain what is seen as a huge security failure that day.
Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Christopher Paris testified to the House committee on Tuesday that the 20-year-old gunman was one of at least three “suspicious” individuals highlighted by the authorities on the scene that day.
Crooks became a “special individual” after law enforcement agents spotted him using a rangefinder, he said – and yet officers on the ground failed to stop him in time despite an officer coming face-to-face with the gunman “minutes” before the “first shots rang”.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle admitted that it was “the most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades” when she testified on Monday. She resigned the next day saying that: “As your director, I take full responsibility for the security lapse.”
On Wednesday, the House voted to establish a bipartisan taskforce to investigate how law enforcement failed to stop the attempted hit on Donald Trump.
The taskforce, announced by Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, will leverage the full authority of the House – including subpoena power.
During Wray’s testimony, he also revealed that, days before the shooting, Crooks had searched online for information about the assassination of John F Kennedy Jr – including the distance between the president and his assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.
The search was carried out on July 6 – the same day that he registered to attend the rally.
“On July 6, he did a Google search for ‘How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?’ and so that’s a search that obviously is significant in terms of his state of mind,” Wray said.
The FBI director also revealed that Crooks flew a drone twice on the day of the shooting: once at 3.50pm and again at 4.00pm – two hours before the assassination attempt.
During the hearings, the security bosses have faced condemnation from lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle.
Committee Chair Mark Green said he was “totally blown away” that federal agents didn’t pull the event after receiving the warning while North Carolina Rep Dan Bishop slammed the “colossal failure” of the Secret Service.