The man charged with bringing illegal guns to a Trump rally now plans to sue the California sheriff who arrested him and said he was possibly there to assassinate the former president.
Vem Miller, the 49-year-old Las Vegas resident arrested Saturday with a shotgun and a pistol in his car outside the rally in Coachella Valley, California, said he plans to bring a “massive lawsuit” against Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.
Mr. Miller said the sheriff made false claims that he was a would-be assassin.
“Everything they said about me is untrue, provably so,” Mr. Miller told the Los Angeles Times on Monday. “Unfortunately, he appears to have committed career suicide.”
Mr. Miller is a failed candidate for state office and an adherent of the anti-government “sovereign citizens” group. He runs The America Happens Network, whose motto is “Rage against the mainstream media.”
Sheriff Bianco said he didn’t believe the sovereign citizen group was militant, but he defended his earlier position that his department “prevented another assassination attempt” on former president Donald Trump.
Sheriff’s deputies stopped Mr. Miller in his car at a security checkpoint outside the rally. They took Mr. Miller into custody after finding the handgun and the shotgun, which were illegal because they were not registered with California authorities.
Mr. Miller also had ammunition for the firearms, which the sheriff said were loaded when deputies found them.
The deputies also found multiple passports and driver’s licenses under various names in Mr. Miller’s possession, and the car was unregistered and had a fake license plate — all of which are hallmarks of the sovereign citizen movement.
Mr. Miller was released within a day after posting a $5,000 bond.
Former federal prosecutor Jay Town said he was stunned that Mr. Miller was allowed to walk out of jail while so many questions were floating around about his identity.
“It’s ridiculous that law enforcement didn’t hold him for a longer period of time,” he told The Washington Times.
He called the $5,000 bond low, given that the allegedly fake passports would have warranted federal charges.
“Normal, law-abiding citizens don’t put a fake license plate on a getaway car [or] have multiple forms of identification that are not related to the individual,” Mr. Town said. “My understanding is that they’re just confident that they have his real name. They’re not even certain of who the individual is and don’t have to release anyone until they know.”
Upon his release, Mr. Miller told a local news outlet that the accusations were completely false.
“I’m an artist, I’m the last person that would cause any violence and harm to anybody,” he told the Riverside Press-Enterprise.
He said the criminal charges arose from him being tripped up by California’s gun laws differing from those in Nevada. He has insisted that he had no intention of harming Mr. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee.
Mr. Miller also said that he had never fired the guns before.
A registered Republican, Mr. Miller lost a 2022 primary election to fill a Nevada state assembly seat.
He said he was a “Trump caucus captain” and was given a “special entry pass” for the event from the head of the Clark County Republican Party.
Sheriff Bianco said that the entry pass was fake, and the phony credentials prompted deputies to investigate further. That’s when they discovered the fake license plate, fraudulent IDs and unregistered firearms.
At a press conference Sunday, Sheriff Bianco said everything about the incident indicated that Mr. Miller could have been a threat to the former president.
“If we are that politically lost that we have lost sight of common sense and reality and reason that we can’t say ‘Holy crap, why did he show up with all that stuff for and loaded guns?’ and I am going to be accused of being dramatic? We have a serious, serious problem in this country. Because this is common sense and reason,” the sheriff said.
The Times reached out to the Clark County Republican Party for comment about Mr. Miller’s allegedly phony credentials.
Assassination, or attempted assassination charges, need to be brought by federal authorities.
The Secret Service said the former president — who had yet to arrive at the event — was never in danger. The agency said it is investigating the incident.
Mr. Trump has survived two assassination attempts on the campaign trail in recent months.
The first came in July when the former president narrowly avoided a gunman’s bullet during a rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania.
The would-be assassin, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was shot dead by Secret Service snipers moments after shots rang out. Mr. Trump suffered a graze wound to his ear in the shooting that left one rallygoer dead and two others seriously injured.
Last month, Secret Service agents opened fire on an armed man camped out in the brush while Mr. Trump played golf in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Authorities arrested Ryan Wesley Routh, a 58-year-old convicted felon, after a short pursuit. They said they found a scoped, AK-47-style rifle and a camera in his hiding spot along the golf course.
Routh was charged in the alleged plot on Mr. Trump’s life. He pleaded not guilty and is being held in a federal prison in Miami.
Mr. Miller is scheduled to return to court Jan. 2.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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