Deputies at Coachella Trump rally discover man with illegal weapons

(This story has been updated to correct and add new information.)

A Las Vegas man who was charged with possession of a loaded firearm and high-capacity magazine after deputies assigned to former President Donald Trump’s rally on Saturday “contacted” him at a checkpoint has been released from custody on bond. of US$5,000.

Federal law enforcement officials said Trump was not in danger and that a federal investigation is ongoing.

Officers contacted Vem Miller, 49, at 4:59 p.m., a Las Vegas resident, who was driving a black SUV at a checkpoint at the intersection of Avenue 52 and Celebration Drive, according to a news release from the Las Vegas Sheriff’s Office. Riverside County on Sunday.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said Sunday he thinks the man intended to kill Trump, an accusation disputed by the individual.

“We probably prevented another assassination attempt,” Bianco told the Southern California News Group, which first released his statement.

Bianco said during a news conference on Sunday that Miller approached the outer perimeter and claimed to be a journalist, as well as having VIP status.

When Miller arrived at the inner perimeter, officers were conducting a “more thorough assessment of arriving vehicles” and described the interior of Miller’s vehicle as being “disordered.” Miller also had a fake license plate which led to an investigation that found “multiple passports with multiple names, multiple driver’s licenses with different names” and an unregistered vehicle. That’s when the weapons were found.

“The license plate was what we in law enforcement would recognize as homemade and indicative of a group of individuals claiming to be sovereign citizens,” Bianco said. “The deputy assumes that he was part of that identifying group.”

The sovereign citizen movement is made up of people who believe they are exempt from U.S. law, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

In an interview with SCNG Sunday, Miller described the accusations as “complete nonsense” and said he is the “last person” to cause violence or harm to anyone. Miller also described himself as “100% a Trump supporter” and said he has never fired a gun in his life in an interview with Fox News Digital on Sunday.

He said he received a special invitation to the rally as head of the Clark County Republican Party and told a deputy that “he legally carried firearms in his trunk.” Miller also said he was not told why he was detained.

Miller illegally possessed a shotgun, a loaded pistol and a high-capacity magazine, according to a news release. He was arrested and booked into 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 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 candidate in the 2026 California gubernatorial race, made remarks on stage Saturday at Trump’s rally, ahead of the former president’s speech.

Before the event, he confirmed that he would attend.

“I will be present because I am responsible for the protection of the former president and all participants, especially in light of recent events surrounding the attempts on his life,” Bianco said in an email. “Our residents should rest assured that they will be safe while attending the rally.”

Bianco supported Trump several months ago, saying in an Instagram video in his sheriff’s uniform that “it’s time we put a criminal in the White House.”

Is this incident another assassination attempt? Here’s what we know

During Sunday’s conference, a reporter asked Bianco what Saturday’s incident led them to believe was another assassination attempt.

“I’ll be honest with you, I don’t remember saying that, but it would certainly be something that I said because it’s something that over the last 12 hours we’ve talked about extensively about what happened,” he said. Thank God, and for what we actually did in the week leading up to keeping that place safe, I certainly wouldn’t want to say after the fact, ‘I wish we had done something to prevent that shooting.’ ”

Bianco also said there was “no way” to “really know” what was going on in Miller’s head.

“This incident did not affect the safety of former President Trump or those attending the event,” according to a press release Sunday.

The US Department of Justice said an investigation is ongoing.

“The U.S. Attorney’s Office, U.S. Secret Service and FBI are aware of the arrest of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office on Saturday,” read a statement from U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada, Central District of California, which serves the county. of Riverside. “The US Secret Service assesses that the incident did not impact protective operations and former President Trump was not in any danger. While no federal arrests have been made at this time, the investigation is ongoing.”

Estrada thanked the 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 the FBI to “ensure that this person is followed up,” Bianco said at the press conference. Any further charges will come from the federal government, he said.

Persons with information regarding this incident are encouraged to call Deputy Coronado at the Palm Desert Sheriff’s Office at 760-836–1600. Bianco also said the FBI was questioning another man after bomb detection 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 is running for state Assembly in Nevada in 2022.

Miller — a Republican described as a professional in the film and television industry — was motivated to run for office because “this country has been ruled by tyranny,” according to a report on the candidate 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 voter rolls, strengthening voter identification laws, returning to paper ballots and live vote counting.

Miller is a plaintiff in an ongoing civil lawsuit that claims he and others were not allowed to properly observe research, 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 and which describes itself on Spotify as “the antithesis of what mockingbird media has to offer – transparent, truth-seeking, abhorring censorship , investigating scum, exposing global tyrants.”

According to the Press-Enterprise, Miller denied presenting a press card at the checkpoint on Saturday and said he had a “special entry pass.”

What is a sovereign citizen? Trump rally gun suspect shows radical signs, says sheriff

Miller was associated with a far-right movement called Sovereign Citizens, according to Bianco. What is the Sovereign Citizen movement? And why might law enforcement be concerned about anyone associated with the group?

The Sovereign Citizen movement is a disparate collection of thousands, if not tens of thousands, of anti-government radicals who believe they are not subject to local or national laws or authorities. Many sovereign citizens, for example, believe they do not have to pay taxes, and there have been several examples of members of the movement arguing their case – unsuccessfully – in court.

Unlike an organized group or organization like the Oath Keepers or the Proud Boys, Sovereign Citizens is basically a “movement,” said Mark Pitcavage, senior researcher at the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism.

“They are very anti-authoritarian,” Pitcavage said. “They don’t like anyone telling them to do something they don’t want to do, they don’t like any kind of authority.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Sunday that “the U.S. Secret Service assesses that the incident had no impact on protective operations and that former President Trump was not in any danger.”

But members of the Sovereign Citizen movement were involved in acts of anti-government violence. In 2010, a father-son team of self-proclaimed Sovereign Citizens shot and killed two police officers during a traffic stop in Arkansas before they were shot to death.

When did two assassination attempts on Trump occur?

An assassination attempt on Trump left one dead at a campaign rally on July 13. The former president’s right ear was injured when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks fired into a crowd at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Crooks was killed by Secret Service agents, USA TODAY reported. About two months later, Trump was the target of an attempted assignment at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, when 58-year-old Ryan Routh pointed a rifle through a fence at the golf club on September 15, USA TODAY reported. .

USA Today reporter Will Careless, Reno Gazette Journal reporter Mark Robison and The Desert Sun reporter Tom Coulter contributed to this article.

Paris Barraza is a trend reporter covering California news at The Desert Sun. Contact her at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @ParisBarraza.