After controversial testimony from Christopher Wray, FBI confirms Trump was hit by bullet

The FBI confirmed what was seen on camera last July 13, when a shooter opened fire on Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pa.: the former Republican president did indeed get hit by a bullet or a bullet fragment on his right ear.

"What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject’s rifle," the FBI said Friday in a statement, after former President Trump criticized the director of the agency, Christopher Wray, for questioning what hit him that day.

This one-sentence statement by the FBI is the most important official-level account of former President Trump's injuries so far. The same announcement belies ambiguous comments earlier in the week from Wray, who appeared to cast doubt before Congress as to whether Trump had actually been hit by a bullet.

"There’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear," Wray said during a congressional hearing. "I don’t know whether that bullet, in addition to causing the grazing, could have also landed somewhere else."

Following the controversial testimony, which fueled conspiracy theories surrounding the attack that ended the life of a local firefighter, allies of the former president and Trump himself criticized Wray.

"FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress yesterday that he wasn't sure if I was hit by shrapnel, glass, or a bullet... No, it was, unfortunately, a bullet that hit my ear, and hit it hard. There was no glass, there was no shrapnel. The hospital called it a 'bullet wound to the ear,' and that is what it was," Trump said on Truth Social. "No wonder the once storied FBI has lost the confidence of America!"

Following the criticism of Wray and ahead of Friday's statement, the FBI was quick to clarify that the shooting in Pennsylvania was indeed an assassination attempt on the former president in which he was injured and also resulted in "the death of a heroic father and the injuries of several other victims."