Federal investigators are looking into the arrest of a guy who was stopped at a checkpoint close to a former president Donald Trump campaign rally on Saturday and had firearms in his car.
About a quarter of a mile from the rally site in Coachella, California, the event is being looked into by the FBI and the Secret Service, according to a statement released by the Justice Department on Sunday.
Martin Estrada, the U.S. attorney for Central California, released a statement saying, “The U.S. Secret Service assesses that the incident did not impact protective operations and former President Trump was not in any danger.” “While no federal arrest has been made at this time, the investigation is ongoing.”
According to a federal law enforcement officer, there is no proof that Trump was the target of an assassination attempt.
At a press conference on Sunday, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco stated that the man in question was stopped at a checkpoint to enter the “inside perimeter” of security surrounding the venue at approximately 5 p.m. local time on Saturday. A deputy noticed his SUV was disheveled inside and displayed “an obviously fake license plate.”
Along with “multiple boxes of ammunition,” deputies discovered two unregistered guns, a loaded pistol and a shotgun, according to Bianco.
The Empire Polo Club, which ceded its previous home site, in nearby Indio, to concert producers behind the renowned Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, uses the property for competition and practice.
Vem Miller, the guy who was stopped, said he was allowed to join the event as a journalist and that he had received an invitation from another participant, according to Bianco. In the SUV, deputies discovered several fictitious identity cards, including passports, bearing several identities.
According to records kept by Riverside County inmates, Miller, 49, a resident of the Las Vegas region, was arrested on suspicion of possessing a large-capacity magazine that is prohibited in California and carrying a loaded pistol. They’re both misdemeanors.
The records show he was freed before midnight. Federal law enforcement, according to Bianco, should look into why he was attempting to enter the venue under false pretenses.
“We were contacted as it happened and Secret Service agents conducted a productive intelligence interview,” a statement from a Secret Service official stated. It had no bearing on the situation, and we are investigating the circumstances and the people’s histories.”
According to a person with knowledge of the matter, Trump was not present at the location when the guy was stopped.
When questioned about the arrest, a Trump campaign representative didn’t seem to know about it. There was no response or remark when more details were given.
As the Republican nominee for a second term in office, Trump faced assassination attempts in July and September, involving Vice President Kamala Harris.
During a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, a shooter fired and killed a man while striking Trump in the ear. The shooter was taken out. And on September 15, not far from his house, at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, a guy thought to be a potential shooter was found lurking in bushes.
Bianco claimed that the individual who was apprehended on Saturday managed to get through an outside barrier since “he gave all indications that he belonged there.” However, he was confident that the individual had little chance of making it past the inner circle, particularly given his story—which he believed was implausible—that he had obtained authorization from a third party to attend.
“You don’t get to give away passes to a rally for a former president,” Bianco remarked, indicating his endorsement of Trump.
According to him, passing through metal detectors at a pedestrian checkpoint run by the Secret Service was another step in the admittance procedure.
Fast-acting deputies may have prevented the individual from entering the demonstration early, according to Bianco, and things might have turned out lot worse.
He declared, “I was totally sure that nothing at all was going to happen inside that facility.”
Bianco mentioned the man’s purportedly forged license plate and the car’s apparent absence of registration papers as signs that he could be connected to the anti-government, independent citizens movement.
Miller was supposed to appear in court on January 2 in connection with the adjacent Indio firearms violations case.
