The Riverside County, California Sheriff’s Department arrested a man reportedly trying to enter a Coachella Trump rally on Sunday with fake identification and guns in what the sheriff said was another assassination attempt.
The suspect, 49-year-old Vem Miller from Las Vegas, Nevada, has a very different story about what happened.
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“He showed up with multiple passports with different names, an unregistered vehicle with fake license plates, and loaded firearms. If you’re asking me right now, I probably did have deputies that prevented the third assassination attempt,” said Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco during a press conference.
The Sheriff’s Department issued a brief statement on Sunday, describing the arrest.
The suspect was trying to pass through a security checkpoint about a quarter mile from the rally with an allegedly unregistered shotgun, handgun, and “high-capacity” magazine when he was arrested.
California considers any magazines with an over 10 round capacity, common in other states, to be “high-capacity.”
Miller reportedly passed through the first layers of security, claiming to be with the press.
Deputies at a later checkpoint noticed that Miller’s unregistered black SUV had fake “homemade” license plates and stopped him.
They claimed that Miller was not press and found multiple passports with different names.
The Maine Wire was able to confirm that Miller was actually press and worked for the America Happens Network.
Deputies arrested him and booked him at the John J. Benoit Detention Center on the firearm charges.
Miller paid the $5,000 bail and is set to appear in court on January 2, 2025.
Bianco told press that, although the suspect was booked under the name Vem Miller, he is unsure of his true identity due to his multiple passports under different names.
Bianco believes that Miller is part of the “Sovereign Citizen” movement, a libertarian group that often uses fake license plates.
He emphasized that sovereign citizens are not generally a violent group.
Miller was quick to publicize his version of events after his release from jail.
He spoke to Fox News and challenged the narrative promoted by Bianco.
He denied any intent to harm President Trump, claiming to be a former Democrat who has fully supported Trump since 2018.
“I’m 100% a Trump supporter,” said Miller.
He told FOX that during his work with the anti-censorship America Happens Network, he began receiving death threats, and so purchased the firearms legally.
The network confirmed that it believes Miller was falsely accused.
Independent Journalist Mindy Robinson of America Happens took Miller’s side, claiming to be his personal friend and colleague.
She argued that Miller was targeted for an “anti-deep state documentary” that he directed for America Happens.
“I stand by Vem Miller….and I will get to the bottom of this bullshit. Watch me,” said Robinson.
Prominent Republican Rep. Thomas Massie (Ky.) follows Robinson’s account on X.
Miller denied the claims that the firearms were illegal, instead blaming California’s restrictive gun laws for the arrest.
He told the outlet that he always travels with his guns, but claimed that he has never fired them in his life.
Fox reported that a Trump campaign official told them they do not believe the incident was another assassination attempt.
Miller defended the allegedly fake passports, claiming that the multiple forms of identification were all his.
Some identification had his full name and some did not, he claimed, because he is Armenian and could face harm in some countries if the authorities realized his ethnicity.
He did not explain why he brought multiple passports to the Trump rally.
Fox reported that Miller denied any association with the “sovereign citizen” movement.
Deputies only searched Miller’s car after he told them he had guns that he did not intend to bring into the rally, according to Miller’s side of the story.
“The body cams and the evidence will expose and reveal that I myself drove up to the sheriff and gave him the common courtesy and respect of letting him know about the firearms I had in the back of my truck,” said Miller in a video explaining his side of the story.
Miller said that the officers arrested him immediately after he informed them that he had firearms.
Miller intends to use a Freedom of Information Act request to acquire the body camera footage from officers to confirm his story.
Officers then allegedly “ransacked” his car, and Miller claims they found nothing else incriminating.
“I hear this arresting officer call me a maggot, and one of those ‘dumb Trump people,'” said Miller.
“This arresting officer’s goal was to make an example of a Trump supporter, was to persecute a Trump supporter having nothing to do with the law,” he added.
Miller plans to sue the sheriff’s department over its alleged failure to give him his one phone call or allow him to speak with a lawyer.
In neither his comments to Fox nor his video did Miller address the allegedly fake license plates on his vehicle or the claims that it was unregistered.
Bianco disregarded Miller’s account of events.
The latest incident comes after the U.S. Department of Justice published a letter written by Ryan Routh, the second alleged would-be Trump assassin.
[RELATED: DOJ Publishes Letter Written by 2nd Attempted Trump Assassin…]
Routh promised $150,000 to anyone able to succeed where he failed and assassinate Trump.
