WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Former US president Donald Trump was indeed hit by an assassin’s bullet or a fragment of one, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said Friday, putting to rest questions over the nature of the Republican candidate’s wounding at a campaign rally this month.

“What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject’s rifle,” the FBI said in a statement.

Trump’s right ear was covered in blood on July 13 after he was injured during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

The FBI deemed the assault — in which a gunman fired eight bullets from outside the event’s security perimeter — an assassination attempt.

But FBI chief Christopher Wray told US lawmakers on Wednesday that there was some doubt as to “whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that, you know, that hit his ear”.

Following the new statement from the FBI — which Trump has long alleged is part of a “deep state” conspiring against him — the Republican posted on his Truth Social platform: “I assume that’s the best apology that we’ll get from Director Wray, but it is fully accepted!”

Earlier Friday, he posted a letter from his former White House doctor saying the wound was almost certainly due to a bullet.

“There is absolutely no evidence that it was anything other than a bullet,” wrote Ronny Jackson, now a Republican congressman from Texas, on Truth Social.

Two rally attendees were seriously wounded in the attack, and a 50-year-old Pennsylvania firefighter was shot dead, according to officials. The gunman was killed by a US Secret Service sniper.

Since the shooting, Trump has made the attack a key part of his campaign pitch, telling a crowd in Michigan that he “took a bullet for democracy”.

At the Republican National Convention where he was anointed the party’s nominee for president, Trump said he had “God on my side” as he described the attack.

And at Trump rallies, many of the former president’s supporters have taken to wearing bandages on their right ears, a reference to the attack.

On Thursday, Trump had also denied Wray’s comments and accused him of political partisanship.

“It was, unfortunately, a bullet that hit my ear, and hit it hard. There was no glass, there was no shrapnel,” he said.

A New York Times investigation published Friday said “a detailed analysis of bullet trajectories, footage, photos and audio… strongly suggests Mr Trump was grazed by the first of eight bullets fired by the gunman”.

Trump’s campaign has not released any medical reports or statements from his current physician, instead quoting Jackson — a former White House physician who is a staunch political ally of the ex-president.