Was it a bullet or shrapnel, what was Thomas Crook;'s motive? FBI Director Christopher Wray's testimony before the US House Judiciary Committee on Donald Trump's assassination bid left the panel members with more questions than answers.
While Wray had a host of information on what the would-be assassin searched online, his movements in the days, hours, and minutes before he took aim at the former president on the 13th of July, the FBI chief could not explain how the shooter was able to bypass the muli-layered security in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Wray's revelations did little help to quell the conspiracies online surrounding Trump's assassination. Even the Republican presidential nominee, who had picked Wray as the FBI chief, made a scathing attack on him through his Truth Social post hours later.
"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!"
"No, it was, unfortunately, a bullet that hit my ear, and hit it hard," he continued. "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!"
For a week now, several conspiracy theories have been flooding the internet. Some claimed that the assassination attempt was staged and that his campaign team set it up to engineer the iconic photos of a resolute Trump surviving an attempt on his life.
Whereas ardent Trump supporters, including some Republican lawmakers, went to the extent of blaming Joe Biden, claiming that his administration had some role in the attempted assassination.
Several X users shared a video of the deceased shooter and wrote, “Rough day for this CIA officer”. Baselessly insinuating that the intelligence agency had a role in the assassination bid.
Another outlandish claim made its way to the X over a woman who was acting strange behind Donald Trump as he was shot.
The woman sparked suspicions about her her bizarrely-relaxed behaviour. Footage of the moment prompted unverified allegations that the woman was FBI Assistant Director Janeen DiGuiseppi and that she was directing the sniper who almost killed Trump.