There is "absolutely no doubt" in the FBI that former President Donald Trump was hit with a would-be assassin's bullet on July 13 during his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate testified Tuesday to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"There is absolutely no doubt in the FBI's mind whether former President Trump was hit with a bullet and wounded in the ear," Abbate said in the hearing, after he was asked by Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., if the FBI had doubts that the Republican presidential nominee had been shot in the ear with a bullet.
"There is no doubt and there never has been," Abbate stressed. "I've been part of this investigation from the very beginning. That has never been raised."
"You are sure?" Kennedy asked him. "It wasn't a space laser?"
"No," Abbate replied.
"It wasn't a murder hornet?" Kennedy asked.
"Absolutely not," said Abbate.
"It wasn't Sasquatch?" said the senator.
"No, senator," the witness replied. "It was a bullet, senator."
"Fired by [Thomas] Crooks at President Trump in the air and almost killed him?" Kennedy further pressed Abbate, who replied "100%, senator."
Tuesday's hearing is being held one day after the FBI released further details about its probe of the shooting, including information that Crooks had sought information online about power plants, improvised explosive devices, mass shootings, and an assassination attempt in May of Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico.
Trump has agreed to be interviewed by the FBI as a crime victim, the agency said, after reporting last week that he had been hit in the ear either by a bullet or a fragment.
The former president said he expects the interview to be held Thursday.