A California sheriff said he believes his officers may have thwarted a third assassination attempt on former President Trump shortly before his Coachella rally over the weekend, while calling out the state’s lenient laws after the quick release of the suspect.
19-year-old Vem Miller was arrested after authorities found multiple guns and passports in his vehicle at a checkpoint to get into Trump’s Coachella rally Saturday evening.
Although Miller denied trying to cause any harm during an interview with Fox News Digital, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco told “FOX & Friends” law enforcement may have foiled another attempt on the former president’s life.
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“Do you think you possibly stopped a third assassination attempt?” Brian Kilmeade asked Bianco Monday.
“In our minds, we did. That’s what we were set up there for. We were set up to stop and prevent anyone from coming on the grounds like happened the last time… and it worked,” he responded. “There’s a lot of speculation that… he’s just an innocent person, and he very well could be.”
“But out of the… between the 25 and the 50, depending on the numbers that you’re hearing, thousand people that came to the rally, only one brought guns,” he continued. “So… we were thankful that our deputy found him, and he was removed before the president even got there.”
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally at the Calhoun Ranch, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024, in Coachella, Calif. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Bianco said during a press conference Sunday that Miller approached the outside perimeter in a black SUV at the intersection of Avenue 52 and Celebration Drive just before 5 p.m. and gave all indications that he belonged there and was allowed into the VIP area of the rally.
Deputies were conducting thorough evaluations of vehicles coming in and immediately noticed some irregularities with Miller.
“It’s a very chaotic scene with people trying to get in there and vehicles coming in and the president on his way,” Bianco said. “So the original deputy that stopped him and talked to him and noticed all these things and eventually ended up getting his consent to search the vehicle located all of these items. So had he not had that encounter with that deputy, he certainly would have been on the grounds of where he would have more than likely ended up, was probably only a few hundred yards, a couple hundred yards from the stage where President Trump eventually was.”
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“But that’s all… speculation,” he continued. “We don’t know because we did our job, and we stopped him from getting on the grounds in the first place.”
During the evaluation, Bianco said the deputy found multiple passports with multiple names, multiple driver’s licenses with different names, that the vehicle was unregistered and the license plate “was what we in law enforcement would recognize as one that is homemade and indicative of a group of individuals that claimed to be ‘sovereign citizens.'”
Sovereign citizens believe they are not under the jurisdiction of the federal government and consider themselves exempt from U.S. law. They use a variety of conspiracy theories and falsehoods to justify their beliefs and their activities, some of which are illegal and violent, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Officials said 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.
Despite lingering confusion surrounding the incident, Miller was released shortly thereafter.
“Probably for the rest of the country, it’s hard to believe that when we arrest people, they don’t stay in jail, but that’s a fact of life here in California,” Bianco said. “Those crimes that we arrested him for were misdemeanors, and we do not hold misdemeanors in custody, so he was given a citation to appear at a later date.”
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“We’ve been dealing with bad law enforcement policy for decades in California, and unfortunately, the whole world sees it now,” he continued.
Bianco said the former president and rally attendees were never in danger during the incident.
“Fortunately for [Miller], unfortunately for us in California, that’s all we can hold him for is the weapons charges, and it’s a misdemeanor,” Bianco said. “It is a sad fact that we can’t hold misdemeanors in jail… They’re released with citations. So I think he did go to jail. He was booked, but I believe he was only there for four to six hours and then cited and released.”
“The ultimate goal was to stop him from getting inside and then getting him away from the event, so the event was safe. The attendees were safe. Our former president was safe,” he continued.
Miller denied his intent was to cause harm to the former president.
“These accusations are complete bull—t,” he 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 Fox News’ Bill Melugin and Bryan Preston that they do not believe this was an assassination attempt on Trump.
Fox News’ Stepheny Price and Bryan Preson contributed to this report.