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The 49-year-old told Southern California News Group he was “shocked” to hear the arrest being described as an assassination plot and denied he was there to harm Trump, telling the outlet he’s a supporter of the former president.
“These accusations are complete bull****,” Miller said. “I’m an artist, I’m the last person that would cause any violence and harm to anybody.”
Sources close to the Trump campaign told the press that there had been no assassination attempt at the Coachella rally.
The Riverside sheriff pushed back against these denials, saying Sunday he doesn’t “know how else to explain it” other than a likely assassination plot by a “lunatic.” “What we do know is he showed up with multiple passports with different names, an unregistered vehicle with a fake license plate, and loaded firearms,” Bianco said at a press conference. “If you’re asking me right now, I probably did have deputies that did prevent the third assassination attempt.”
The sheriff added that his department’s investigation of Miller is likely near its end, and that any future charges would likely come from federal officials.
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.
The arrest marks the third threatening incident involving an armed man near the Republican candidate.
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.
