By Paris Barraza
Palm Springs Desert Sun
A Las Vegas man who has been charged with possession of a loaded firearm and high-capacity magazine after deputies assigned to former President Donald Trump’s rally Saturday “contacted” him at a checkpoint was released from custody on $5,000 bail.
Deputies contacted 49-year-old Vem Miller at 4:59 p.m., a resident of Las Vegas, who drove a black SUV at a checkpoint at the intersection of Avenue 52 and Celebration Drive, according to a news release from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office on Sunday.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said on Sunday that he thinks the man intended to kill Trump, an accusation disputed by the individual.
“We probably stopped another assassination attempt,” Bianco told the Southern California News Group, which first reported his statement.
Bianco said during a press conference on Sunday that Miller approached the outside perimeter and claimed to be a journalist in addition to having VIP status.
When Miller got to the inside perimeter, deputies were conducting a more “thorough evaluation of the vehicles coming in” and described Miller’s vehicle interior as being in “disarray.” Miller also had a fake license plate that led to an investigation finding “multiple passports with multiple names, multiple driver licenses with different names” and an unregistered vehicle. This is when the weapons were found.
“The license plate was what we in law enforcement would recognize as one that is homemade and indicative of a group of individuals that claim to be sovereign citizens,” Bianco said. “The deputy assumes that he was part of that identifying group.”
The sovereign citizen movement is composed of people who believe they are exempt from U.S. law, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
In an interview with the SCNG Sunday, Miller described the accusations as “complete bullsh*t” and said he is the “last person” to cause violence or harm to someone.
He said he received a special invitation to the rally as head of Clark County’s Republican Party and he told a deputy that “he was lawfully carrying firearms in his trunk.” Miller also said he wasn’t told why he was apprehended.
Miller illegally had a shotgun, a loaded handgun and a high-capacity magazine, according to a news release. He was arrested and booked at the John J. Benoit Detention Center in Indio. Miller was released Saturday on $5,000 bail, and was scheduled to appear at the Indio Larson Justice Center on Jan. 2, according to the department’s inmate database.
Trump spoke to a crowd of several thousand people at the Calhoun Ranch in Riverside County, just outside Coachella, at 5:30 p.m. — about half an hour after his remarks were scheduled to begin.
Bianco, who emerged in April as a potential contender for the California governor’s race in 2026, made remarks on stage Saturday at the Trump rally ahead of the former president’s speech.
Prior to the event, he confirmed that he would attend.
“I will be attending as I am responsible for the protection of the former president and all of the attendees, especially in light of recent events surrounding attempts on his life,” Bianco said in an email. “Our residents should be assured they will be safe while attending the rally.”
Bianco endorsed Trump several months ago, saying in an Instagram video with his sheriff’s uniform on that “it’s time we put a felon in the White House.”
Is this incident another assassination attempt? Here’s what we know
During Sunday’s conference, a reporter asked Bianco what about Saturday’s incident led them to believe this was another assassination attempt.
“I will be honest with you, I don’t remember saying that, but it certainly would be something I did say because it’s something that in the last 12 hours, we’ve talked about extensively of what happened,” he said. “Thank God, and by an act of really what we did in the week leading up to keeping that place secure, I certainly wouldn’t want to be saying after the fact, ‘I wish we would have done something to prevent that shooting.’”
Bianco also said that there is “no way” to “truly know” what was in Miller’s head.
“This incident did not impact the safety of former President Trump or attendees of the event,” according to a news release Sunday.
The U.S. Department of Justice said there is an ongoing investigation.
“The U.S. Attorney’s Office, U.S. Secret Service, and FBI are aware of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office arrest on Saturday,” read a statement from U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada, Central District of California, which serves Riverside County. “The U.S. Secret Service assesses that the incident did not impact protective operations and former President Trump was not in any danger. While no federal arrest has been made at this time, the investigation is ongoing.”
Estrada extended gratitude to deputies and local partners who “helped ensure the safety of last night’s events.”
“We are actively engaged” in working with the Secret Service and FBI to “ensure that this person is followed up on,” Bianco said at the press conference. Any further charges will come from the federal government, he said.
People with information about this incident are encouraged to call Deputy Coronado at the Palm Desert Sheriff’s Station at 760-836—1600. Bianco also said the FBI was questioning another man after bomb-detecting dogs identified him as possibly dangerous and denied him access to the rally.
What do we know about Vem Miller?
SCNG described Miller as a registered Republican who holds a master’s degree from UCLA and ran for state Assembly in Nevada in 2022.
Miller — a Republican described as a film and TV industry professional — was motivated to run for office because “this country has been taken over by tyranny,” according to a candidate report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
If he could only do one thing while in office, Miller told the news outlet, he would focus on alleged voter fraud. He supports auditing the voter rolls, strengthening voter ID laws, returning to paper ballots and livestreaming ballot counting.
Miller is a plaintiff of an ongoing civil lawsuit that claims he and others were not allowed to properly observe polls, according to Clark County court records, the Review-Journal reported.
Miller hosts the “Blood Money” podcast on the American Happens Network, a network he founded in 2007 that describes itself on Spotify as “the anti-thesis of what the mocking bird media has to offer — transparent, seeking truth, abhorring censorship, investigating scum-baggery, exposing global tyrants.”
According to the Press-Enterprise, Miller denied presenting a press pass at the checkpoint on Saturday and said he had a “special entry pass.”
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