COACHELLA, Calif.—Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco told The Epoch Times on Oct. 14 that a previous statement he had made—that a suspect arrested on Saturday outside a rally by former President Donald Trump had said he was “going to kill the president”—was in fact incorrect and based on “bad info.”
“He never said it. It was bad info … given to me. He never told a deputy that,” he told The Epoch Times in a text message.
On Oct. 13, Bianco had told The Epoch Times in a text message that: “We arrested a man trying to get in the perimeter with two firearms who ended up saying he was going to kill the president.”
The suspect had been arrested outside the perimeter of a Trump rally in the city of Coachella in Southern California, 130 miles east of Los Angeles, on Oct. 12. The arrest was made before former President Trump arrived on site.
At an afternoon press conference, the sheriff said he believes his deputies most likely helped thwart another assassination attempt.
He said, “From a state law enforcement agency’s perspective, the firearms charges are what we arrested him for and booked him on … There were two guns, and multiple boxes of ammunition for both, there was a handgun and a shotgun.
“We know that we prevented something bad from happening, and it’s irrelevant what that bad was going to be.”
In a joint statement on Oct. 13, the Department of Justice, Secret Service, and FBI said they are aware of the arrest.
“The U.S. Secret Service assesses that the incident did not impact protective operations and former President Trump was not in any danger,” the agencies said.
“While no federal arrest has been made at this time, the investigation is ongoing.”
Suspect Vem Miller, in an interview with Southern California News Group, said he was “shocked” that he was arrested and accused of trying to harm the former president.
“I’m an artist, I’m the last person that would cause any violence and harm to anybody,” he said.
In a video statement he released on Oct. 14, he said that he is a supporter of former President Donald Trump and that he went to the rally at the invitation from the Nevada Republican Party.
The Epoch Times contacted the Nevada GOP for comment but didn’t receive a reply by publication time.
At around 5 p.m.—before former President Donald Trump arrived on-site—deputies assigned to the rally encountered the driver of a black SUV at a checkpoint at the intersection of Avenue 52 and Celebration Drive, said the sheriff’s department in a news alert on Oct. 13.
The driver was initially allowed through an outer security perimeter, Bianco said at the press conference.
“As he got to the inside perimeter, where deputies were conducting obviously a more thorough evaluation of the vehicles that were coming in, there were many irregularities that popped up,” the sheriff said.
The interior of the vehicle was in disarray, was unregistered, and had a fake license plate, Bianco said, prompting further investigation despite the driver’s claims that he was a journalist with VIP access to the event. The driver was also allegedly found to have in his possession multiple passports with multiple names and multiple driver’s licenses with different names, according to the sheriff’s department. Multiple unregistered weapons and boxes of ammunition for both weapons were also allegedlyfound.
Miller was taken into custody for the state crimes of driving an unregistered vehicle, possession of a loaded firearm, and possession of a high-capacity magazine and booked at the John J. Benoit Detention Center.
He has since been released on $5,000 bond.
Miller, 49, also spoke to Fox News Digital after his release, and said that the sheriff’s claims against him wanting to assassinate Trump are false.
In his video statement, Miller said that when he arrived at the parking area for the rally, he told police officers that “in the trunk of my car I carry two firearms, one is a Glock one is a shotgun,” adding that this is the same as what he had done at previous events, out of “common courtesy to the police.”
He said after telling law enforcement about the firearms, he was asked to pull over, after which he was asked to exit his vehicle and was handcuffed and placed in the back of a police car.
He said he was taken to Secret Service and FBI agents, who wanted to speak to him, according to the officer that arrested him.
“He told me there is a serious situation, there has been assassination attempts on Trump and … they’re going to investigate this, they’re going to interrogate you,” Miller said.
According to Miller the federal agents ended up not talking to him after he invoked his right to a lawyer.
Bianco at his press conference said that: “We didn’t arrest him for going inside the facility, we arrested him for having illegal guns in his car. What his frame of mind was, really, all we can do is speculate, unless we truly just want to believe anything that he tells us.”
The sheriff’s department said the “incident did not impact the safety of former President Trump or attendees of the event,” as the suspect was detained before he got to the event entrance.
Bianco said the sheriff’s department is working with the Secret Service and the FBI on the case. Any further charges, if any, will be filed by the federal government.
Earlier, Bianco said the man arrested behaved in a manner indicative of a group of individuals that claim to be “sovereign citizens.”
Miller said in his video statement that the sheriff’s comment was “a nonsensical statement,” adding, “I’m not anti-government.”
“So the term I’m part of a right-wing anti-government group, is absolutely ridiculous and doesn’t make any sense,” he said.
Update: This article has been updated with a statement from Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco in which he retracted his previous statement. It has also been updated with statements from Vem Miller made in an online video statement.
From The Epoch Times