Man arrested outside rally a ‘committed Trump supporter,’ Clark County GOP chair says

The man arrested Saturday outside a California rally for former President Donald Trump was not only a “great admirer” of the former president, but he also had been granted expedited entry into the rally by Clark County Republican Party Chairman Jesse Law.

The county GOP chairman said that Vem Miller asked him for entry to the Trump event in Coachella Valley, California, and that he got the longtime volunteer an expedited entry.

“It’s what we do for volunteers that we know,” said Law, who has served as county party chair since 2021 and is a former Trump White House employee.

‘Great admirer’ of Trump

Law said he knows Miller personally, and he described him as a Trump supporter and grassroots activist. Miller is a Trump caucus captain and has attended all the conventions, including the RNC in July, Law said.

“I just know him to be a sincere and committed Trump supporter,” Law said.

Miller, a former 2022 Republican Assembly candidate, was booked Saturday at the John J. Benoit Detention Center for possession of a loaded firearm and possession of a high-capacity magazine, both misdemeanors, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office. Miller was released from custody on $5,000 bail the same day.

Miller told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the notion raised by the Riverside County sheriff that deputies who arrested him may have thwarted an attempt to assassinate Trump was ridiculous. Miller also said he is a “great admirer” of the former president.

‘Abusing their positions’

Miller also denied the sheriff’s claims that he was anti-government or that there was anything wrong with his car or firearms. He described officers as ransacking his car and appearing as though there was a desperation to find something.

Miller said he plans to sue law enforcement officials, whom he claimed were merely trying to make an example of him.

“They are abusing their positions. They are breaking the law themselves, and they hide under their badge,” he alleged.

Former Clark County District Attorney David Roger told the Review-Journal that if federal agencies believed Miller had been planning an assassination attempt, they likely would have held him in custody, or would at least be putting together a case very quickly.

The next step, he said, would be to look into signs through Miller’s social media accounts, emails and other information that would lead them to believe he was planning an assassination attempt.

Miller’s social media is coated in pro-Trump and anti-Kamala Harris posts, some of which make vulgar, sexual comments about the vice president. Two weeks ago, he posted photos with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who endorsed Trump after dropping out of the 2024 election as an independent candidate.

‘I’m in great company, you know’

Roger and former federal prosecutor Kathleen Bliss both questioned the sheriff’s accusations of a potential assassination, with Bliss calling them “gratuitous.”

“Right now, just having a gun in an area where the former president is located doesn’t amount to an assassination attempt,” Roger said.

Bliss said it was still too early to understand the case fully, but noted that if she were the prosecutor on the case, she would be asking questions about where the guns were, and what was illegal about them. She also wanted to know whether there were signs about firearms outside.

Miller said Sunday that he did not realize the laws were different than in Nevada. He said the firearms were in the trunk of his car, as they were at 10 other Trump rallies in New York and Nevada. Miller said he had never used the guns, but had them “just in case” ever since he said he started receiving death threats for an online program.

“You’ve got two competing dangers,” Bliss said. “One is you don’t want anyone hurt, for darn sure. But then number two, because there is a lot of hyper vigilance about things, you don’t want to rush to doing something that would violate someone’s constitutional rights.”

In a video released on Rumble after midnight on Monday morning, Miller said that he could not help but wonder what his mugshot would look like next to that of Trump.

“I’m in great company, you know,” he said. “Apparently when you try to do the right thing in this country, mugshots are what happens.”

Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on X. Contact Katie Futterman at kfutterman@reviewjournal.com.