This claim seems to come from a legal defense that Peltier’s team filed, saying that they had found a report in the FBI files showing that none of the bullets had come from his weapon.
It was an early report from the lab analyst, on the first hundred or so bullet casings that they’d been asked to review. They would go on to test 2000+ bullet casings, with the casing with evidence number Q #2628 from the FBI officer’s trunk coming from Peltier’s gun.
This matter was also introduced and discussed in the original trial:
I’m really curious how exactly one can shoot at two FBI guys that are actively searching for a man named wanted for questioning in connection an assault . . . in self defense.
I’m over here minding my own business when I hear some shooting. I go to investigate, a bullet whizzes by and I see some guy pointing a gun at me. I draw my own gun and fire in return.
Peltier had an outstanding federal warrant for attempted murder of a Milwaukee WI police officer - although Williams and Coler {the two FBI agents} were not aware of this.
and,
It is unclear whether the occupants of the vehicle began the firing first or if it was Williams or Coler.
Not that Wikipedia is the last word on any of this.
Trump could be politically persecuted or he could, simply, be guilty as charged. The only way to know which is the true answer is to assemble as much evidence as possible and then you evaluate it critically - both for the right answer and for the question of how conclusive the evidence really is of that answer.
Likewise with Peltier, taking the accusation at face value, there could be a many-multi-decade vendetta against the man by the FBI with them employing guards and other inmates to punish him, or he could just be an insufferable asshole - once you get to know him - and he brings retribution on himself by dint of being an asshole to individuals who are in a position and liable to be inclined to make him suffer for it.
In terms of evidence, we aren’t really close enough to the situation to evaluate it. I’m sure that the can seem like a nice and respectable man for one-off meetings, so even a few sit-downs might not be enough to really let you know what he’s like to live with.
We can say that it seems difficult for the FBI to maintain that particular level of hate for nearly a full half century, through a number of directors and Presidents of both political persuasions.
It also seems peculiar that there wouldn’t be any leaks about FBI payoffs to these inmates, who are beating on the guy, over the course of 50 years.
Now, I wouldn’t call that conclusive by any stretch. But it doesn’t incline me to stick my neck out very far in Mr Peltier’s defense.
Of course, if there haven’t been people randomly attacking Peltier, then that would be its own issue because who spread that story? Are there any pictures of him with wounds? That feels like the sort of thing that would be easy for his lawyer to get and, eventually, find their way to the Internet. I’m not finding any and that seems questionable.
“Activists sympathetic to Peltier attempted to mislead the Commission and the public to secure release of this unremorseful murderer of FBI Special Agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams,” Bara said in a statement, adding that the association “will continue to counter these efforts, and we stand with the entire FBI family in our determination to ensure that Peltier serves his full sentence.”
He seems assured to serve the first of the two consecutive life sentences, but the second one will prove tricky.