By Kellen Browning
A man was arrested and accused of illegal weapons possession as he was trying to enter former President Donald Trump’s rally in Coachella, California, on Saturday evening, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office said Sunday.
The man, whom they identified as Vem Miller, 49, of Las Vegas, was found to be illegally in possession of a shotgun, a loaded handgun and a high-capacity magazine, the sheriff’s office said. Miller was later released on bail, according to the county’s inmate information system.
Miller had been allowed through an outer ring of security as he drove toward the rally but was stopped by law enforcement officers at a second level of security, before Trump had arrived at the rally, Chad Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff, said at a news conference Sunday.
In a joint statement, the U.S. attorney’s office, the Secret Service and the FBI said that the Secret Service had determined “the incident did not impact protective operations and former President Trump was not in any danger.”
The statement said that “while no federal arrest has been made at this time, the investigation is ongoing.”
It was not clear what Miller’s motives were. Bianco said at a news conference that he believed the arrest could have thwarted a third assassination attempt on Trump.
“If you’re asking me right now, I probably did have deputies that prevented the third assassination attempt,” Bianco said, while acknowledging that “all we can do is speculate” as to Miller’s motives.
Miller was released Saturday on $5,000 bail, and a court date was set for Jan. 2, according to the county’s inmate information system.
The incident was another reminder of the security concerns surrounding Trump, who has been the target of two assassination attempts this year. On July 13, a gunman shot at Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, injuring him and two others and killing one man before the gunman was shot and killed. And Sept. 15, Secret Service agents noticed a would-be gunman waiting at Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, as the former president golfed there. The man was later taken into custody and charged with the attempted assassination of Trump.
Bianco said that Miller “gave all indications” he was allowed at the rally, claiming that he was a VIP guest and a member of the press, and that he bypassed the first level of security. But as he tried to drive closer to the venue, a deputy noticed that the inside of Miller’s car was in “disarray” and that he had an obviously fake license plate, prompting an investigation.
Miller did not respond to an email seeking comment. The Press-Enterprise reported Sunday that Miller told the Southern California News Group in an interview that he was “shocked” by the arrest, that he supports Trump and that he was “the last person that would cause any violence and harm to anybody.” In the interview he said he was unfamiliar with the difference between California’s and Nevada’s gun laws.
Law enforcement officers discovered that Miller had multiple passports with various names and multiple driver’s licenses, and that his car was unregistered, Bianco said. They also ascertained that Miller appeared to consider himself a “sovereign citizen,” which Bianco described as part of a “far-right” and “fringe” group that believes government laws do not apply to its members.
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