Former President Donald Trump agreed to an interview Monday with the FBI for its investigation into the assassination attempt at his campaign rally in Pennsylvania, despite briefings historically generating little reward for Republicans.
FBI officials provided new information about the shooting Monday. The suspected shooter used pseudonyms to make “more than 25 different firearms-related purchases,” an official stated. The investigation, according to the FBI, is geared toward creating a timeline for the gunman’s attack, not assessing law enforcement’s procedures and actions.
“As part of our normal investigative process, we regularly interview victims of crime to offer our support and learn more about their perspective regarding their experience,” Kevin Rojeck, the special agent spearheading the FBI’s Pittsburgh Field Office, stated during a briefing for journalists. “To that end, we have contacted former President Trump and he has agreed to participate in the victim interview.”
The announcement came after FBI Director Christopher Wray claimed July 24 that “there’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear.”
This prompted the former president to lambast Wray on his network Truth Social, stating the director’s “only focus is destroying [January 6] Patriots, Raiding Mar-a-Lago, and saving Radical Left Lunatics,” concluding the “once storied” agency has lost Americans’ confidence.
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…
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) July 26, 2024
FBI briefings have traditionally posed challenges for the GOP and the bureau was previously accused of “weaponizing” intelligence briefings and leaking information to target Republicans.
Most notably, on Jan. 6 2017, then-FBI Director James Comey’s briefing with Trump was leaked to the media.
The meeting – with Trump, Comey, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and then-NSA Director Mike Rogers – concerned the intelligence community’s investigation on Russian interference. (RELATED: Steele Source Voiced ‘Strong Support’ For Hillary Clinton, Had Ties To Kremlin)
After the meeting, Comey “stayed behind” to tell Trump about some of the Steele Dossier’s claims, which Trump denied. BuzzFeed later published the dossier Jan. 10 with the headline, “These Reports Allege Trump Has Deep Ties To Russia.”
The Steele Dossier was the basis for the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane,” the investigation that fueled allegations Trump colluded with Russia – a claim later proven to be untrue.
In 2020, documents revealed FBI agents intended to “use future briefings” with Trump’s campaign to covertly collect intelligence, according to a press release from the office of Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley.
The Steele Dossier incident was not the only time an FBI briefing caused problems for Republicans. Grassley and Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin sent a letter to the FBI in 2023 regarding its alleged interference into the senators’ Hunter Biden investigation.
Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Bradley Benavides and FBI Intelligence Analyst in Charge of the Washington Field Office Intelligence Division Nikki Floris gave the senators an “unnecessary briefing” on the Hunter Biden investigation, according to another press release. That briefing culminated in a leak that falsely deemed the assessment “as advancing Russian disinformation.”
The report detailed Hunter Biden’s business dealings and his role on the board of the Ukrainian based energy company Burisma, which officials said conflicted with the U.S.’s “anticorruption agenda in Ukraine.”
The Russian disinformation narrative quickly became the default rebuttal against critiques of the Biden family.
President Joe Biden has countered criticisms of his son by dismissing them as Russian misinformation. Additionally, 51 intelligence officials in 2020 doubted the New York Post’s bombshell story about Hunter Biden’s laptop in a letter, characterizing it as a “Russian information campaign.” However, the letter did not contain any evidence that substantiated the officials’ claim, and it admitted the officials did not actually know whether the story was “Russian disinformation.”
Major media outlets including CBS News and The Washington Post later admitted the story was true. The Department of Justice also confirmed that Hunter Biden’s laptop – the Apple MacBook Pro left at a computer repair shop – was indeed real, corroborating the New York Post’s original reporting.
Republicans have repeatedly criticized the FBI’s alleged bias against conservatives. The House Judiciary Committee has held congressional hearings on political weaponization.
In 2023, Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan highlighted a whistleblower’s claim that the agency’s employees were “being run out of the bureau for attending conservative political events.”
House Judiciary Committee Chairman @Jim_Jordan highlights how numerous FBI whistleblowers have come forward to reveal multiple examples of how the FBI has been weaponized against conservatives. pic.twitter.com/1mXqrwdEue
— House Republicans (@HouseGOP) February 9, 2023
Despite the agency’s tense relationship with Republicans, the FBI is continuing its ongoing investigation into the attempted assassination. The bureau is slated to speak with Trump on Thursday, according to the former president.
