Sheriff Chad Bianco confirms the hypothesis of the third attack on Trump.
Arrested Vim Miller49 years old, at the entrance to the area where a Donald Trump rally was to be held on Saturday.
Bianco provided new details, in the evening, regarding the manner of the arrest: Miller had presented himself showing a false accreditation for VIP access and a journalist pass, which also turned out to be false. The sheriff’s men, who were guarding one of the access points to the area, became suspicious. A license plate check revealed that the black SUV driven by Miller, and kept in complete disarray inside, was false. The car was not registered. The search of the interior provided new reasons to suspect him: there were two weapons, a pistol and a rifle, loaded, as well as numerous ammunition, many false passports and false driving licenses.
The man was arrested for illegal possession of weapons but released after paying a $5,000 bail and ordered to appear before a judge on January 2, 2025. “In the meantime – explained the sheriff – the Secret Service and FBI will deal with him and new federal indictments are possible, but I am not able to add anything else”. The fact that a potential attacker was released raised doubts. The sheriff, however, did not go into details.
This episode, although very different from the previous ones, could be Trump’s third assassination attempt in just three months: on July 13 the tycoon was injured in Butler, Pennsylvania, after a young man, Matthew Brooks, had fired a war rifle from the roof of a building. A spectator, who had protected his daughters, died in the attack and two people were injured. Brooks had been killed by a Secret Service sniper. On September 15, a man was arrested after being seen armed with a rifle, on the edge of Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Floridawaiting to hit the former president, who was busy playing golf.
This one from Coachella appears the least dramatic. “There was no impact on Trump’s security”commented the sheriff. Miller turned out to be a Republican voter, belonging to right-wing anti-government groups. He himself defined himself as a “sovereign citizen”. In his Linkedin account he says of himself that he has been an investigative and documentary journalist for more than twenty years and that he is against “power and politics that have crushed small businesses and the middle class”. In 2022 Miller also attempted a political adventure: he ran for the Nevada state congress but did not pass the primaries.
FBI and Justice Department, Trump has never been in danger
Two federal officials told CNN that there is currently no evidence to suggest that the man arrested for possession of firearms near Donald Trump’s rally on Saturday in California was attempting to assassinate the former president.
In a joint statement with the FBI and Justice Department, the US Secret Service said “former President Trump was not in danger” at the rally.
The man, who authorities say illegally possessed a shotgun, a loaded handgun and a high-capacity magazine, gained access to an initial perimeter near the rally in Coachella, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said Sunday .
Once the man, identified by the sheriff as Vem Miller, 49, of Las Vegas, arrived at the second perimeter, authorities became aware of some “irregularities,” Bianco said. The interior of the car was in disarray, the vehicle was not registered and had a false license plate.
