Donald Trump was hit by a bullet during the assassination attempt two weeks ago, a Dailymail.com analysis shows.
Evidence, including from forensic and ballistics experts, shows the former president was hit in the ear by the first of eight bullets fired by would-be assassin Thomas Crooks at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
This comes after FBI Director Christopher Wray told a congressional hearing Wednesday that there was “some question about whether it was a bullet or shrapnel that struck him in the ear.”
Two weeks after the attack, Trump appeared without a bandage on his right ear for the first time on Friday, and his former doctor said he is “recovering quickly.”
The FBI remains uncertain as to whether Trump was hit by shrapnel or a bullet, but the former president has criticized that claim and said he was likely hit by a bullet.
Donald Trump is seen on Friday, July 26 without a bandage on his right ear for the first time since surviving an assassination attempt two weeks earlier.
Crooks, 20, used a PMS-brand AR rifle to fire 5.56 ammunition in the attempted murder.
Bullets fired from such weapons may, if they hit something, break into fragments.
That led to speculation that the bullet might have hit an object, such as a metal bar holding up the stage or bleachers, and that a piece of shrapnel could have flown off and struck Trump.
However, Crooks had a clear, unobstructed line of sight to the president, with no nearby objects in his way.
The initial bullet’s trajectory was captured in a “one-in-a-million” photograph just after it passed over Trump’s head, and then in another piece of video as it struck the stands directly behind him.
Analysis by forensic audio expert Steve Beck showed Trump grabbed his ear immediately after picking up the “sound” of the first bullet passing through his microphone.
The ‘crack’ of the second bullet was heard 0.867 seconds later, he told Dailymail.com.
In total, Crooks fired eight shots in 5.2 seconds.
Wray confirmed that the FBI had recovered three ‘explosive devices’ in Crooks’ possession.
There was an initial burst of three shots, then a brief pause as Trump fell to the ground, followed by a faster burst of five shots.
Then, 0.3 seconds after Crooks’ eighth and final shot, a Secret Service agent fired a round from near the stage.
He appears to have incapacitated or killed Crooks when he stopped firing.
Ten seconds later, another shot was fired from a different gun, believed to have been fired by another Secret Service agent or a law enforcement officer.
Audio analysis shows Crooks was 380 feet away from where the sound of the bullets was picked up by Trump’s microphone.
After the first bullet flew past Trump, a video posted by the New York Times showed it creating a cloud of smoke as it hit the stands near David Dutch, one of the rally attendees.
Dutch appeared to be hit by one of the later shots in the first three-shot burst.
In the second burst of five shots, Corey Comperatore, a heroic father and firefighter attending the demonstration, was killed while protecting his family.
Beck said the decreased time intervals between shots showed the gunman appeared to have aimed more accurately with the first one.
The difference between the second and third shot was reduced to 0.67 seconds, and then even less.
“The gunman had the best aim with the first shot, so it was to be expected that he would be the closest to hitting the target,” he said.
After the first three Crooks “took aim again” and began “pulling the trigger as fast as he could.”
Beck said he did not hear the sound of the first bullet hitting any other object before Trump grabbed his ear.
However, if the bullet had hit something else first, then the sound would not have registered on Trump’s microphone because, at that point, he would have still been speaking.
For shrapnel to have been present, the FBI would have had to have discovered that the bullet hit something “hard” before reaching Trump, causing it to shatter, ballistics expert Nathan Foster told Dailymail.com.
If that had happened, then the wound on Trump’s ear would have been “jagged,” opening up an “irregularly shaped wound,” rather than opening a hole, he said.
There was also no way to reconcile a shrapnel wound with the photograph of the bullet’s trajectory taken by New York Times photographer Doug Mills.
Investigators found eight shell casings near Crooks’ body on the roof, from where he fired from 380 feet away.
FBI experts are expected to analyze the trajectory of the bullets as they compile a forensic picture of the shooting.
Another early theory was that a bullet might have struck one of the two glass teleprompter screens in front of Trump, and that the former president was then hit by flying debris.
However, the teleprompters were visible and undamaged after the shooting.
Rep. Ronny Jackson, Trump’s former physician, criticized Wray on Friday.
He said: ‘During the congressional hearing two days ago, FBI Director Christopher Wray suggested it could be a bullet, shrapnel or glass.
‘There is absolutely no evidence that it was anything other than a bullet.
“Congress should correct the record, as both the hospital and I have confirmed. Director Wray is wrong and it is inappropriate to suggest otherwise.”
U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson, President Trump’s former White House physician
He said Butler Memorial Hospital had treated Trump for what he called a “gunshot wound to the right ear.”
He added: “Based on my direct observations of the injury, my relevant clinical experience and my significant experience evaluating and treating patients with similar injuries, I fully agree with the initial evaluation and treatment provided by the physicians and nurses at Butler Memorial Hospital on the day of the shooting.”
Meanwhile, Trump appeared without a bandage on his ear for the first time since the shooting on Friday as he hosted Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago.
Expressing his outrage at Wray, he said: “No, unfortunately it was a bullet that hit me in the ear and it hit me very hard. There was no glass or shrapnel.”