Calif. Sheriff: Man with Trunk Full of Guns Stopped Outside Trump Rally

By Mona Darwish and Beau Yarbrough

Source San Bernardino County Sun, Calif.

A Las Vegas man was arrested with guns and fake I.D.s about a quarter mile from former President Donald Trump's campaign rally in Coachella Valley, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said Sunday. But while the sheriff called the arrest a thwarted assassination attempt, the man told a reporter he is a Trump supporter who bought the guns 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. on Saturday. He was found to be in illegal possession of a shotgun, loaded handgun, and a high-capacity magazine, Bianco said. He added that Miller's car had a fake license plate and was unregistered.

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Bianco told the Southern California News Group on Sunday that he believes Miller — who he said identifies with a right-leaning anti-government group — planned to kill Trump and that deputies thwarted the plan when Miller presented a fake VIP pass at a checkpoint.

"(The VIP pass was) different enough to cause the deputies alarm," Bianco said. "We probably stopped another assassination attempt."

Bianco said they also found he had multiple phony passports and driver's licenses.

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."

Miller said he is a Trump caucus captain who 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 said he had a "special entry pass."

Miller said he was never told why he was being apprehended. Roughly eight hours after being detained, he 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 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 also 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 appeared to be a 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 statutes unless they consent to them.

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

Mindy Robinson, who described herself as Miller's partner at America Happens, posted on X and Instagram on Sunday that the accusations against Miller don't make sense to her.

"There isn't a universe (where) his intention was to kill Trump," Robinson wrote. "He's worked too hard in this movement to expose the Deep State and all the people against him."

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

Miller's arrest was retaliation for America Happens' recent coverage of an alleged government cover-up regarding the 2014 Bundy ranch standoff in Nevada, she said.

"I firmly believe this is 100% some kind of set-up in retribution for exposing it," Robinson wrote on X.

On Saturday, the Sheriff's Department set up what Bianco called a double perimeter that controlled access near 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.

At an afternoon news conference on Sunday, Bianco bristled when a reporter suggested the sheriff's statement that Miller planned to kill Trump was "dramatic."

Said Bianco: "If you are asking me right now, I probably did have deputies that prevented the third assassination attempt. If we are that politically lost that we have lost sight of common sense and reality and reason that we can't say, 'Holy crap, why'd he show up with all that stuff for and loaded guns?' and I am going to be accused of being dramatic? We have a serious, serious problem in this country. Because this is common sense and reason."

At one point, Bianco called Miller "a lunatic."

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

"I certainly didn't want to be saying after the fact: 'I wish we had done something to prevent that shooting,' " he said. "There is absolutely no way any of us are going to truly know what was in his head."

Miller was booked at the John J. Benoit Detention Center in Indio 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.

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

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.

Staff writer Kaitlyn Schallhorn contributed to this report.

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