Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, responded on Friday to testimony by FBI Director Christopher Wray who said it was unclear whether the wound former President Donald Trump sustained during an assassination attempt was actually caused by a bullet.
In a letter released from Jackson's congressional office, the former White House physician said, "There 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," Jackson said. "Director Wray is wrong and inappropriate to suggest anything else."
Jackson is no longer a practicing doctor but served as a White House physician to both President Barack Obama and Trump. Jackson said that he made his judgment based on his "direct observations of the injury" and experience evaluating patients with similar wounds.
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Before Congress, Wray said the investigation into what transpired at the July 13 political rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, was still ongoing.
“I think with respect to former President Trump, there’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that, you know, hit his ear," Wray told members of Congress on Wednesday.
Trump has repeatedly said the wound was caused directly by a bullet. Trump said at a recent Michigan political rally that he "took a bullet for democracy."
The Biden administration has also noted that Trump was shot during the assassination attempt.
"I want to speak to what we do know: A former president was shot. An American citizen killed while simply exercising his freedom to support the candidate of his choosing," President Joe Biden said in an address to Americans the day after the shooting.
Regardless of whether it was a bullet or shrapnel, it was the most serious assassination attempt on a current or former president since President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. Earlier this week, then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle told Congress that the incident was the Secret Service's "most significant operational failure" in decades.
She resigned following her congressional testimony that yielded bipartisan calls for her to step down.
