A man was arrested in Riverside County, Calif., and charged with illegal possession of a loaded firearm and a high-capacity magazine after he tried to enter a rally Donald Trump held in the desert area in Coachella, sheriff’s officials announced Sunday.
The man, whom police questioned as he approached the venue in his car, claimed he was a journalist and had VIP access, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said during a news conference Sunday. Trump was not yet at the event when the man was arrested outside the venue Saturday, Bianco said.
The sheriff’s office gave the suspect’s name as Vem Miller, 49, of Las Vegas but cautioned that he had multiple IDs and passports with different names. He was released after posting a $5,000 bond Saturday, jail records show.
Bianco said his office “prevented another assassination attempt,” but federal law enforcement does not appear so far to be treating this incident as such. Local law enforcement provided no evidence Sunday indicating that Miller had been seeking to harm Trump.
The Secret Service said in a statement Sunday that Trump was not in danger. “While no federal arrest has been made at this time, the investigation is ongoing,” a joint statement from the Secret Service, the FBI and Justice Department said.
Miller did not immediately respond to requests for comment Sunday night but told the Press-Enterprise that he had the guns only for his own safety. He told the Southern California newspaper that he supports Trump and notified police at a checkpoint that guns were in his trunk as a courtesy.
“I’m the last person that would cause any violence and harm to anybody,” Miller told the newspaper.
Miller is scheduled to appear in court in January, according to jail records.
Miller works for America Happens Network, a site that says it aims to be “the anti-thesis of what the mocking bird media has to offer.”
Bianco said Miller had a fake license plate, which prompted deputies to investigate further. They found an unregistered handgun and shotgun in his vehicle, Bianco said.
Federal officials have said that Trump was targeted in assassination attempts twice since July, so Bianco said his deputies were following a “detailed” security plan Saturday. Bianco said he had planned to attend the rally with family members.
“The planning that my team did and the actions of my deputies … is exactly what we had hoped for,” Bianco said. “And we know that we prevented something bad from happening, and it’s irrelevant what that bad was going to be.”
Ryan Routh, who has been accused of attempting to assassinate Trump after he hid out in the bushes of Trump’s Florida golf course with weapons, has been ordered to remain in custody pending trial since his arrest in September. Routh pleaded not guilty to the charges, which include federal gun and attempted assassination charges.
In July, federal investigators said Thomas Matthew Crooks shot at Trump at the former president’s rally in Butler, Pa., before he was killed by a Secret Service countersniper.
