A 49-year-old Nevada man was arrested at a security checkpoint near former President Donald Trump’s Coachella rally on Saturday, October 12, after being found with weapons, multiple IDs with different names and fake VIP IDs, The Riverside County sheriff’s office said Sunday.

The man, identified by authorities as Vem Miller, was sitting in a black SUV when he was stopped at a checkpoint in the Coachella Valley shortly before 5 p.m. local time by officers assigned to Trump’s rally, according to a statement Online statement from the sheriff’s office shows. Authorities discovered he was illegally possessing firearms and he was taken into custody and booked into the John J. Benoit Detention Center. Miller was released the same day on $5,000 bail, conditions of which are not yet known.

In a news conference Sunday, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said an investigation is ongoing. “What we know is that he showed up with multiple passports with different names, an unregistered vehicle with a fake license plate and loaded firearms,” Bianco said. “If you ask me now: I probably had deputies who prevented the third assassination attempt.”

But Miller told the Riverside newspaper The press company that the allegations made against him were “complete nonsense”.

Here’s what we know about Miller so far.

A Republican running for office

Public records show Miller is a registered Republican. The press company says he has a master’s degree from UCLA, and according to the Nevada Secretary of State’s office, he is running as a Republican for state Assembly in Nevada’s District 13 in 2022. He lost.

According to the Las Vegas Review Journal In 2022, Miller said he was inspired to run for office because “this country has been taken over by tyranny.” Miller told the Review Journal that if elected he would focus on alleged voter fraud.

Had several IDs with him

To explain the IDs with different names, Miller reportedly told Fox News Digital Sunday that he is Armenian and has some documents that use his full Armenian name, and explained that using those documents with his full name could lead to him being killed in other parts of the world. refers to campaigns targeting Armenians

Connections to the “Sovereign Citizen” movement?

Bianco said Miller’s vehicle was unregistered and had a homemade license plate that gave “an indication” of an affiliation with the Sovereign Citizens movement – which the FBI describes as “anti-government extremists” who believe they are not following the laws of the United States subject to government.

Miller has denied that claim. Speaking to Fox News Digital, he said: “That’s a nonsensical statement.”

A Trump supporter

Miller joins in The press companyHe said he was “shocked” by his arrest and the accusation that he was harming Trump because he was a supporter. Miller told the publication that he was a Trump caucus captain who traveled to the Coachella Valley at the special invitation of the Clark County Republican Party chairman.

He said he wore a Trump hat and shirt to attend the Coachella rally, arguing that he had a “special ticket.”

An Instagram account owned by Vem Miller features various selfies with conservative figures such as former White House chief strategist and Trump adviser Steve Bannon, former Trump adviser Stephen Miller and British parliamentarian Nigel Farage. There’s also a selfie with former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who dropped out of the race and now supports Trump.

Speaking to Fox News, Miller made it clear that he was “100%” a Trump supporter: “This is a man that I deeply admire because I was a closed person in terms of my beliefs because I worked in Hollywood have.”

A media practitioner

According to Bianco, Miller claimed outside that he was a journalist and had “VIP status” and was therefore allowed entry. But inside, where officers examined those entering the area more thoroughly, Miller was arrested.

A LinkedIn page with the name Vem Miller in Las Vegas states that the page owner is a partner and co-founder of The America Happens Network, a media production company with the slogan “Rage Against the Mainstream Media” and related content on the political right. The page also states: “I have worked in the media for over 20 years as an investigative journalist, documentary filmmaker and content producer.”

In an Instagram post on Sunday, Mindy Robinson, who claims to be Miller’s business partner, wrote to defend him, saying, “There is no universe in which he had the intent to kill Trump.”

“I stand with Vem Miller… and I will get to the bottom of this nonsense,” she added.

Why did he carry weapons?

The Press Enterprise reported that Miller purchased the firearms in 2022. “I always travel around with my guns in the back of my truck,” he said in his interview with Fox News, saying he got them after receiving death threats as a result of his media work but says he knows nothing about them. “I’m more than a beginner.”

Per Press Enterprise, Miller said he informed a deputy at the rally checkpoint that he was legally carrying weapons as a courtesy. He was asked to get out of the car, handcuffed and his vehicle was “searched” after the officer wanted to check whether the weapons had been purchased legally. Miller also reportedly did not fire the weapons and was unaware of the differences between gun laws in Nevada and California.

According to the sheriff’s office’s online inmate database, Miller was charged with possession of a loaded firearm and possession of a large capacity magazine. He is currently out on bail and is scheduled to appear at the Indio Larson Justice Center on January 2nd next year.