We've come to expect this sort of thing from Rosie O'Donnell or any of the ladies at The View, but not from the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation when he's testifying under oath before the House Judiciary Committee. Christopher Wray was being questioned on Wednesday evening as part of the ongoing investigation into the assassination attempt on Donald Trump's life on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania. Wray was asked if the Bureau had managed to locate all eight of the bullets fired by Thomas Crooks, but his answer veered off from "just the facts" to one of the wild conspiracy theories that have been making the rounds ever since. Wray suggested that "there's some questions about whether or not it's a bullet or shrapnel that hit near his ear." Where is Wray getting his news from these days? TikTok? (NY Post)

The head of the FBI made the stunning assertion Wednesday that former President Donald Trump may not have been struck by an actual bullet when a deranged gunman attempted to assassinate him at a political rally — and was instead injured by shrapnel.

FBI Director Christopher Wray told the House Judiciary Committee in a hearing that it was not clear precisely what caused the injury to Trump’s ear during the shooting.

“With respect to former President Trump, there’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear,” Wray said in response to a question from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

These ongoing efforts to somehow minimize what happened to Trump are strictly political theater being conducted in an attempt to beat back the surge in support that the former President has seen since being shot. We've come to expect this from MSNBC and CNN, but we should at least be able to expect better from the head of the FBI. Trump's doctors have described the wound precisely and treated it accordingly. The bullet grazed his inner ear and blew out the top portion of the outer ear. Obviously he was shot. We have the rifle and we presumably have the body of the shooter. That part of the case is closed. For Pete's sake, even the New York Times is now admitting that Trump was shot.

New from NYT's visual investigation team: A detailed analysis of bullet trajectories, footage, photos and audio by The New York Times strongly suggests Mr. Trump was grazed by the first of eight bullets fired by the gunman, Thomas Crooks. https://t.co/98GG1YtpuM

— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) July 26, 2024

On top of that, Corey Comperatore is dead and two other people were gravely wounded. Neither of the teleprompters was damaged. Yes, it's important to find all eight of the bullets as part of a thorough investigation and it's rather amazing that the FBI hasn't been able to locate them all yet. (Or if they have they're not telling us.) But then there are many parts of the FBI's investigation thus far that simply don't pass the smell test. The Director of the Bureau being unable to say whether the primary target was actually shot or not more than a week later is just one more dubious item to toss on the pile.

Trump and his people were having none of it. Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung told the Post, "Anyone who believes this conspiracy bulls–t is either mentally deficient or willfully peddling falsehoods for political reasons." That's the correct analysis as far as I'm concerned, and it was my immediate reaction upon hearing about Wray's testimony. Trump caught wind of the story a bit later and took to Truth Social to lay into Wray. 

FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress yesterday that he wasn't sure if I was hit by shrapnel, glass, or a bullet (the FBI never even checked!), but he was sure that Crooked Joe Biden was physically and cognitively "uneventful" - Wrong! That's why he knows nothing about the terrorists and other criminals pouring into our Country at record levels. His only focus is destroying J6 Patriots, Raiding Mar-a-Lago, and saving Radical Left Lunatics, like the ones now in D.C. burning American flags and spray painting over our great National Monuments - with zero retribution. 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. No wonder the once-storied FBI has lost the confidence of America!

I previously concluded that there probably wasn't any sort of conspiracy brewing behind the actions of Thomas Crooks. (Though I am prepared to be proven wrong if more evidence emerges.) He was most likely just an isolated, lonely, and clearly psychotic kid who was desperate to achieve some sort of recognition in life and who studied the actions of past presidential assassins as role models. The real conspiracy started almost as soon as the shooting was over and its goal was to thwart Donald Trump's bid to return to office. It would appear that Christopher Wray has accepted a role in this conspiracy drama and he is willing to mislead Congress while testifying under oath to do so. This is truly disgraceful to observe.