A 49-year-old Nevada man was arrested at a security checkpoint near former President Donald Trump’s Coachella rally on Saturday, Oct. 12, after he was found with guns, several IDs with different names, and fake VIP credentials, the Riverside County sheriff’s office said on Sunday.
The man, identified by authorities as Vem Miller, was in a black SUV when he was stopped shortly by deputies assigned to Trump’s rally at a checkpoint in the Coachella Valley just before 5 p.m. local time, per an online statement from the sheriff’s office. Authorities found he illegally possessed firearms, and he was taken into custody and booked at the John J. Benoit Detention Center. Miller was released the same day on a $5,000 bail—the terms of which are not yet known.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]In a Sunday press briefing, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said an investigation is ongoing. “What we do know is he showed up with multiple passports with different names, an unregistered vehicle with fake license plate, and loaded firearms,” Bianco said. “If you’re asking me right now, I probably did have deputies that prevented the third assassination attempt.”
But Miller told Riverside paper The Press-Enterprise that the accusations leveled against him were “complete bullsh-t.”
Here’s what we know so far about Miller.
Public records suggest that Miller is a registered Republican. The Press-Enterprise says he has a master’s degree from UCLA, and, according to the Nevada Secretary of State’s office, he ran for state assembly in Nevada’s District 13 as a Republican in 2022. He lost.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2022, Miller said he was inspired to run for office because “this country has been taken over by tyranny.” Miller told the Review-Journal that if elected, he would focus on alleged voter fraud.
To explain the IDs with different names, Miller reportedly told Fox News Digital Sunday that he is Armenian and has some documents which use his full Armenian name, stating that using those documents with his full name can get him killed in other parts of the world, referring to campaigns targeting Armenians
Bianco said Miller’s vehicle was unregistered, with a homemade license plate that was “indicative” of affiliation with the “sovereign citizen” movement—described by the FBI as “anti-government extremists” who believe they aren’t subject to government statutes.
Miller has denied this claim. Speaking to Fox News Digital, he said: “That’s a nonsensical statement.”
Miller, speaking to The Press-Enterprise, said he was “shocked” by his arrest and the accusation that he would harm Trump, since he is a supporter. Miller told the publication that he is a Trump caucus captain who went to the Coachella Valley upon a special invitation from the head of Clark County’s Republican Party.
He said he wore a Trump hat and shirt to attend the Coachella rally, and argued that he had a “special entry pass.”
An Instagram account belonging to a Vem Miller shows a variety of selfies with conservative individuals such as former White House Chief Strategist and Trump advisor Steve Bannon, former Trump aide Stephen Miller, and U.K. parliamentarian Nigel Farage. There is also a selfie with former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who dropped out of the race and is now backing Trump.
Speaking to Fox News, Miller clarified he was “100%” a supporter of Trump: “This is a man that I deeply admire, because I was a closet individual in terms of my beliefs, because I worked in Hollywood.”
According to Bianco, Miller claimed at an outside perimeter that he was a journalist and that he had “VIP status,” and was thus allowed entry. But it was within the inside perimeter where deputies were examining entrants more thoroughly that Miller was arrested.
A LinkedIn page with the name Vem Miller, located in Las Vegas, states that the page owner is partner and co-founder of the The America Happens Network, a media production company with a tagline “Rage Against the Mainstream Media” and featuring content related to the political right. The page also reads: “For 20 years +, I have been working in the media as an investigative journalist, documentary filmmaker, and a content producer.”
In a post on Instagram, Mindy Robinson, who claims to be Miller’s business partner, wrote Sunday in defense of him, saying that “there isn’t a universe his intention was to kill Trump.”
“I stand by Vem Miller… and I will get to the bottom of this bullsh-t,” she added.
The Press-Enterprise reported that Miller bought the firearms in 2022. “I always travel around with my firearms in the back of my truck,” he said in his interview with Fox News, saying he got them after he received death threats due to his media work, but says he does not know anything about them. “I am beyond a novice.”
Per the Press-Enterprise, Miller said that he informed a deputy at the rally checkpoint that he lawfully carried guns as a courtesy. He was asked to step out of the car and was handcuffed, and his vehicle was “ransacked” after the deputy wanted to check if the guns were legally purchased. Miller also reportedly did not fire the weapons, and was unaware of the differences between Nevada and California’s gun laws.
According to the sheriff office’s online inmate database, Miller was booked for possessing a loaded firearm and a high-capacity magazine. He is currently out on bail and is scheduled to appear at Indio Larson Justice Center on Jan. 2 next year.
