Vem Miller, the man arrested at a Donald Trump rally in Coachella in 2024 after Riverside County sheriff’s deputies confiscated two firearms from his truck, will have a charge of carrying a loaded firearm in public dismissed if he complies with a judge’s order.
Miller, who pleaded not guilty to the charge, did not have to enter a guilty plea to receive what is called a misdemeanor diversion.
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On Jan. 29, Riverside County Superior Court Judge James Hodgkins ordered Miller to complete an eight-hour gun safety class, take an online, four-hour life skills course and complete 40 hours of community service.
A hearing to determine whether the charge will be dismissed is scheduled for July 30.
“There was never any controversy in this situation,” Miller, 51, said Monday. “There was never any threat. … On a spiritual level, I would have loved a complete dismissal (without the diversion).”
Miller said he planned to leave the firearms in his truck.
Miller, who splits his time between Nevada and Montebello, said in a previous interview that he was a caucus captain in Nevada who supported Trump and that he received an invitation to the Coachella Valley rally held on Oct. 12, 2024, from the Clark County Republican Party. As he arrived at a checkpoint for the parking lot a mile from the rally, he told deputies that he had a loaded handgun and a shotgun secured in his trunk.
His car was not registered, he had multiple passports and deputies did not recognize the pass Miller showed them. That raised suspicions with the sheriff that Miller was there to make an attempt on the candidate’s life following an attempted shooting at a golf course in Florida in September 2024 by a man since sentenced to life in prison, and the wounding of Trump by a gunman in Butler, Pennsylvania, two months earlier.
A day after the arrest, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said, “I probably did have deputies that prevented the third assassination attempt.”
Miller insists that he never threatened to kill the man he supported for president.
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Miller said he bought the firearms in 2022 for protection after he started receiving death threats and that he was unfamiliar with the difference between Nevada and California gun laws. He said he has a Canadian passport that lists his legal name before he changed it. And he has a U.S. passport.
The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office opposed the diversion. Deputy District Attorney Diana E. Serrano wrote in a court filing that Miller “acted deliberately by carrying an unsecured shotgun, ammunition, and a loaded firearm with a full 15-round magazine in a public place.”
Miller subsequently filed a federal lawsuit against Bianco, alleging a violation of the right of freedom of assembly under the First Amendment and a violation of freedom from unreasonable search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment. Miller also alleged that Bianco committed libel and slander against him after Bianco, the lawsuit says, texted the Epoch Times: “We arrested a man trying to get in the perimeter with two firearms who ended up saying he was going to kill the president.”
Miller said he never said that.
Bianco and the county filed a response to the federal lawsuit in which they denied the allegations and called for the lawsuit to be dismissed, which it was by a judge.
Miller’s attorney in the civil case, Ethan Bearman, has filed an appeal. Bearman said Monday that he has not yet filed a brief that will identify the grounds for appeal.
The attorney said the judge did not rule on the libel and slander allegations, so those portions of the federal lawsuit were refiled in Superior Court in Riverside County.
Miller, after careers as a music video producer and creator of documentaries and reality television shows, now operates the America Happens Network that produces podcasts and documentaries. Topics include the Covid pandemic, the “cover up” of the Route 91 music festival mass shooting in Las Vegas, the Deep State and, by Miller’s estimation, 300 pieces on Bianco that include discussions of jail deaths and his budget.
Miller said he is registered to vote in California and has not decided which gubernatorial candidate will receive his vote.
“I can tell you with 100 percent certainty that it’s not Chad Bianco in the primary,” Miller said.
Bianco declined to comment for this story.
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