Former President Trump on Thursday said he spoke with the FBI about his assassination attempt, saying the bureau has done a “very good job” in its probe of the July shooting.
“The FBI came to see me about the shooter. I think they’ve done a very good job. And I think they did a very good job,” Trump said during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
The FBI is spearheading an investigation into the attempted assassination against Trump at a rally last month, when a shooter grazed Trump with a shot while killing one spectator and wounding two others.
The bureau said last month that Trump agreed to sit with the FBI for a “standard victim interview,” though it was not immediately clear whether this was the meeting the former president referred to in Thursday’s comments. The Hill reached out to the agency for further comment.
The former president said Thursday he has “pretty much recovered” from the incident, describing himself as a “fast healer.”
“It’s a hell of a shot, but I’m a fast healer. … I got very lucky. It just hit the lobe, as they call it,” he said.
The FBI confirmed last month Trump was struck in the ear by a bullet. He wore a bandage on one of his ears in the weeks that followed the shooting.
Trump also lauded the FBI for doing a “very good job with respect to this other lunatic that they have in custody.”
While he did not directly name the suspect, the remark comes two days after the Justice Department disclosed a Pakistani man was accused of engaging in a plot to carry out political assassinations on U.S. soil, potentially including against the former president, The Associated Press reported.
The court documents for Asif Merchant, who has alleged ties to Iran, do not mention specific targets, but U.S. officials confirmed last month a threat on Trump’s life from Iran led to additional security in the days leading up to the rally shooting.
The shooter at the July 13 rally, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was not linked to the alleged Iran plot, a law enforcement official told the AP.
“The Justice Department will spare no resource to disrupt and hold accountable those who would carry out Iran’s lethal plotting against Americans,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said last month at a House hearing.