A third assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump was thwarted on Saturday after a Las Vegas man was arrested with weapons and fake passes about a half mile from Trump’s campaign rally in Coachella Valley, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said Sunday. But the man who had the weapons told a reporter he is a Trump supporter who bought them for his own safety and notified police at a checkpoint that they were in the trunk of his car.
Deputies assigned to Trump’s rally said the driver, Vem Miller, rolled up in a black SUV to a checkpoint at the intersection of Avenue 52 and Celebration Drive around 5 p.m. He was found to be in illegal possession of a shotgun, loaded handgun, and a high-capacity magazine, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said in a news release.
Bianco told the Southern California News Group on Sunday that he believes Miller — who he said is a member of a right–leaning anti-government group — planned to kill Trump and that deputies thwarted the plan when Miller presented fake VIP and press passes at a checkpoint.
“They were different enough to cause the deputies alarm,” Bianco said. “We probably stopped another assassination attempt.”
Miller, in an interview with Southern California News Group on Sunday, said he was “shocked” that he was arrested and accused of trying to harm Trump, who he supports.
“These accusations are complete bull—t,” Miller said. “I’m an artist, I’m the last person that would cause any violence and harm to anybody.”
A Trump supporter and caucus captain, Miller said he received a special invitation to the Coachella Valley rally from the head of Clark County’s Republican Party. Donning a Trump shirt and hat, the 49-year-old said he reached a checkpoint prior to entering the event parking lot and told a deputy he was lawfully carrying firearms in his trunk – as a courtesy.
He was asked to pull over and step out of the car before he was handcuffed and had his vehicle “ransacked” after a deputy said he wanted to retrieve the gun’s serial numbers to confirm they were lawfully purchased.
Miller said he bought the firearms in 2022 for protection, after he started receiving death threats. He had never fired them and said he was unfamiliar with the difference between Nevada and California’s gun laws.
He also denied presenting a press pass at the checkpoint and said he only had a ‘special entry pass.’
Miller said he was never told why he was being apprehended. Roughly eight hours after being detained, Miller said he was finally given the opportunity to call a lawyer and recounted his experience on the phone in front of an FBI agent and member of the Secret Service, who were there to interview him. He was later told by deputies that the interview had been called off.
Miller is a registered Republican who holds a master’s degree from UCLA, and who ran for state assembly in Nevada in 2022. He lost in the primary.
He told the Las Vegas Review-Journal at the time that he was running because “this country has been taken over by tyranny.” He said he supported more electric car manufacturing in Nevada and solar energy but also would want to focus on election security issues if he had been elected to office, including strengthening voter ID laws and implementing paper ballots again.
Miller runs The America Happens Network, whose motto is “Rage against the mainstream media.”
On his LinkedIn, he wrote, “For 20 years +, I have been working in the media as an investigative journalist, documentary filmmaker, and a content producer … I have seen our rights be taken, while the power of big government grows. I have seen small businesses and the middle class be squashed. I have seen unlawful mandates and politicians acting like dictators. I have also seen how the power of the money flows through politics and a political class that no longer works for We The People.”
Bianco said Miller considers himself a so-called sovereign citizen, a group of people who do not believe they are subject to any government statutes unless they consent to them. Miller denied that.
The Sheriff’s Department set up what Bianco called a double perimeter that controlled access within a half mile of the rally. Residents were allowed through, but they were watched to make sure they drove to their neighborhoods and not toward the rally.
Miller was apprehended at one of those checkpoints.
Bianco said that the last he heard, Miller had not made any statements to investigators.
The sheriff said he is in disbelief.
“I thought it’s not going to happen in Riverside County. We don’t have the same sicko issues and violent protests like they have in Los Angeles. We’re better than that. Go figure.”
Bianco said U.S. Secret Service officials said his department went “above and beyond” in their efforts to protect Trump and others who attended the rally.
“I am extremely proud of the mental and physical effort our deputies showed all day,” said Bianco, who noted high temperatures in the desert area were near 100 degrees.
Bianco also said the FBI is questioning another man after bomb-detecting dogs “repeatedly” identified him as possibly dangerous. That man was not allowed in the rally, Bianco said.
Miller was booked at the John J. Benoit Detention Center for possessing a loaded firearm and high-capacity magazine, authorities said.
He was released Saturday on $5,000 bail and is scheduled to appear at the Indio Larson Justice Center on Jan. 2, 2025, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department inmate database.
The Secret Service put out a brief statement saying it was aware of the arrest. “The incident did not impact protective operations. The Secret Service extends its gratitude to the deputies and local partners who assisted in safeguarding last night’s events,” the agency said.
In September, 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh was charged with attempting to assassinate Trump as the former president played golf. U.S. Secret Service agents found Routh with a high-powered rifle on Sept. 15 outside Trump International Golf Club in Palm Beach. Agents spotted the barrel of his weapon in the bushes and fired at him before he fled.
On July 13, 2024, at a rally near Butler, Pennsylvania, Matthew Crooks shot at Trump with an AR-15–style rifle from a nearby rooftop as Trump gave a campaign speech. Crooks hit Trump’s ear with a shot and killed one attendee while critically injuring two others before Crooks was killed by Secret Service counter-sniper agents.
City News Service contributed to this report. More information will be added as it becomes available.
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