Armed man arrested outside Trump rally as sheriff says possible ‘assassination attempt’ thwarted

Police at Donald Trump’s rally on Saturday in Coachella Valley, California, stopped what a sheriff suggested might have been a third assassination attempt against the former president.

Deputies stopped suspect Vem Miller in a black SUV around 5pm about half a mile from the rally. Police allegedly found him in illegal posession of a shotgun, loaded handgun, and a high-capacity magazine. Miller allegedly presented fake VIP and press passes at a checkpoint.

“They were different enough to cause the deputies alarm,” Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco told the Southern California News Group on Sunday. “We probably stopped another assassination attempt.”

Miller was described in a police press release as a 49-year-old resident of Las Vegas.

“Miller was taken into custody without incident and later booked at the John J. Benoit Detention Center for possession of a loaded firearm and possession of a high-capacity magazine,” the sheriff’s office said in the release. “This incident did not impact the safety of former President Trump or attendees of the event.”

Sheriff Bianco added in his interview with Southern California News Group that Miller is a registered Republican who said he is part of a right-wing anti-government group, and that the Las Vegas man considers himself a “sovereign citizen” beyond the reach of government control.

Social media belonging to a Vem Miller of Las Vegas shows as man posing for selfies with MAGA and conservative figures including Steve Bannon, Steven Miller, Russell Brand, Robert F Kennedy Jr and Newt Gingrich. A self-filmed video shows the same man at the Republican National Convention, describing “good people, good times”, and coming close to Donald Trump Jr as he walks past.

The same man appears to have run for a position as an assembleyman in Las Vegas in 2022. According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, this Vem Miller was running as a Republican and was concerned with issues of voter fraud and was involved in an ongoing lawsuit claiming he and others had not been allowed to observe vote-counting. The paper also said he was in favor of solar energy projects and wanted to bring more electric car manufacturing to Nevada. He appears not to have won the election, however.

The man arrested near the Trump rally this weekend was released Saturday on $5,000 bail and is scheduled to appear is scheduled to appear at the Indio Larson Justice Center in early January, according to the local Press Enterprise newspaper.

Police were expected to provide a livestreamed public briefing on the arrest on Sunday afternoon at 3pm, Pacific time.

In September, a federal grand jury in Florida charged Ryan Wesley Routh with attempting to assassinate Donald Trump.

Routh, 58, allegedly camped outside the former president’s West Palm Beach golf course with a high-powered SKS-style assault rifle, waiting for Trump to pass by on September 15.

The Florida incident came after a gunman fired on the former president with an AR-15-style rifle at a rally in Pennsylvania, grazing his ear.

The threats against Trump prompted criticism of his Secret Service detail, and the head of the Secret Service resigned in July.