Man Arrested With Guns At Trump Rally In Coachella; Riverside sheriff says they stopped assassination attempt – Press Enterprise

A Las Vegas man was arrested with guns and fake IDs about a quarter-mile from former President Donald Trump's campaign rally in the Coachella Valley, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said Sunday. But while the sheriff described the arrest as a foiled assassination attempt, the man told a reporter that he was a Trump supporter who bought the weapons for his own safety and told police at a checkpoint that they were in the trunk of his car.

Deputies in charge of Trump's rally said the driver, Vem Miller, rolled up to a checkpoint at the intersection of Avenue 52 and Celebration Drive in a black SUV around 5 p.m. Saturday. He was found to be in illegal possession of a shotgun, a loaded handgun and a high-capacity magazine, Bianco said. He added that Miller's car had a fake license plate and was unregistered.

Bianco told the Southern California News Group on Sunday that he believes Miller – who he says identifies with a right-wing anti-government group – was plotting to kill Trump and that deputies foiled the plan when Miller gave a fake one at a checkpoint VIP pass presented.

“(The VIP pass was) different enough to concern deputies,” Bianco said. “We probably prevented another assassination attempt.”

Bianco said they also discovered he had several fake passports and driver's licenses.

Miller said in an interview with the Southern California News Group on Sunday that he was “shocked” that he was arrested and accused of trying to harm Trump, whom he supports.

“These allegations are complete nonsense,” Miller said. “I am an artist, I am the last person who would cause violence and harm to anyone.”

Miller said he is a Trump caucus captain who received a special invitation to the Coachella Valley rally from the chairman of the Clark County Republican Party. Wearing a Trump shirt and hat, the 49-year-old said he reached a checkpoint before entering the event parking lot and told an officer that he was legally carrying firearms in his trunk as a courtesy.

He was asked to stop and get out of the car before he was handcuffed and his vehicle was “ransacked” after an officer said he wanted to retrieve the gun's serial numbers to confirm they had been legally purchased.

Miller said he bought the firearms in 2022 for protection after receiving death threats. He had never shot it before and said he was unfamiliar with the difference between gun laws in Nevada and California.

He also said he had a “special entry permit.”

Miller said he was never told why he was arrested. About eight hours after his arrest, he said he finally got the chance to call a lawyer and recounted his experiences over the phone to an FBI agent and a Secret Service member who wanted to question him. Officials later informed him that the interview had been canceled.

Miller is a registered Republican who holds a master's degree from UCLA and ran for the Nevada State Assembly in 2022. He lost in the primary.

He told the Las Vegas Review-Journal at the time that he was running because “tyranny has taken over this country.” He said he supports more electric car manufacturing in Nevada and solar energy but would also want to focus on election security issues if elected to office, including tightening voter ID laws and reinstating paper ballots.

Miller also runs the America Happens Network, whose motto is “Rage Against the Mainstream Media.”

He wrote on his LinkedIn: “For over 20 years I have worked in the media as an investigative journalist, documentary filmmaker and content producer… I have seen our rights taken away as the power of big government increased.” I have seen how small businesses and the middle class were oppressed. I have seen illegal mandates and politicians who behaved like dictators. I also saw how the power of money flows through politics and a political class that no longer works for We The People.”

Bianco said Miller appeared to be part of or have an affinity for so-called sovereign citizens, a group of people who do not believe they are subject to any government laws unless they agree to them.

In his interview with a reporter, Miller flatly denied this.

Mindy Robinson, who described herself as Miller's partner on America Happens, posted on X and Instagram on Sunday that the allegations against Miller make no sense to her.

“There is no universe in which his intention was to kill Trump,” Robinson wrote. “He has worked too hard in this movement to expose the Deep State and all the people who are against him.”

She described Miller as a “good guy with a gun” and said it made sense to go armed to “unsafe” California.

Miller's arrest was in retaliation for America Happens' recent reporting on an alleged government cover-up surrounding the 2014 standoff at the Bundy Ranch in Nevada, she said.

“I firmly believe this is 100% some sort of retaliation for the revelation,” Robinson wrote on X.

On Saturday, the sheriff's department set up what Bianco called a so-called double cordon, controlling access near the rally. Residents were allowed to pass through, but were monitored to ensure they were driving into their neighborhood and not toward the rally.

Miller was arrested at one of these checkpoints.

At a news conference Sunday afternoon, Bianco bristled when a reporter called the sheriff's statement that Miller planned to kill Trump “dramatic.”

Bianco said: “If you ask me now, I probably had deputies who prevented the third assassination attempt. When we're so politically lost that we've lost sight of common sense, reality and reason that we can't say, “Holy crap, why did he show up with all that stuff and loaded guns?” and you will accuse me of being dramatic? We have a serious, serious problem in this country. Because that’s common sense and common sense.”

At one point, Bianco called Miller “a lunatic.”

When he learned of the arrest, Bianco said, “My first thought was that we did everything right. It worked.

“I certainly didn't want to look back and say, 'I wish we had done something to prevent that shooting,'” he said. “None of us will really know what was going on in his head.”

Miller was booked at the John J. Benoit Detention Center in Indio on charges of possession of a loaded firearm and possession of a high-capacity magazine, authorities said.

He was released on $5,000 bail Saturday 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.

Bianco said if there were further charges, they would come from the federal government. He said the FBI, Secret Service and Sheriff's Department were continuing the investigation.

The Secret Service issued a brief statement saying it was aware of the arrest. “The incident had no impact on protective measures. “The Secret Service thanks the deputies and local partners who helped secure last night’s events,” the agency said.

In September, 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh was charged with attempting to assassinate Trump as he played golf. U.S. Secret Service agents found Routh with a high-powered rifle on September 15 outside the Trump International Golf Club in Palm Beach. Agents spotted the barrel of his gun in the bushes and shot him before he fled.

On July 13, 2024, at a rally near Butler, Pennsylvania, Matthew Crooks shot Trump with an AR-15 rifle from a nearby rooftop as Trump gave a campaign speech. Crooks shot Trump in the ear, killing one attendee and seriously wounding two others before Crooks was killed by Secret Service snipers.

Staff writer Kaitlyn Schallhorn contributed to this report.

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