Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump dances during a campaign rally at Findlay Toyota Arena in Prescott Valley, Arizona, on Oct. 13, 2024. (Caitlin O’Hara, AFP, Getty Images via TNS)
LOS ANGELES (Tribune News Service) — The man who was arrested outside a Trump rally in Coachella for bringing two loaded guns to the event sued the Riverside County sheriff this week, alleging law enforcement officials defamed him and violated his rights.
Vem Miller, 49, was arrested on gun charges Saturday after police found a loaded pistol and shotgun in his car. At a news conference that day, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said that his deputies had “probably” stopped a third assassination attempt on the former present.
In the aftermath of the arrest, however, investigators said they hadn’t found any evidence that Miller was planning to shoot former President Trump.
“Bianco, intentionally, maliciously and with a blatant disregard for the truth, wanted to create a narrative so as to be viewed as a ‘heroic’ Sheriff who saved Presidential candidate Trump from a third assassination attempt,” wrote Miller’s lawyer, Sigal Chattah, in the lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in Nevada.
Miller has repeatedly denied having any intention of harming the former president, including in an interview with The Times. The L.A. native said he is a fan of the former president and carries the weapons in his car for self-defense.
Bianco said at a Sunday news conference that officers also found fake passports and fake IDs in the car and that the car had fake license plates.
The lawsuit called the allegations against Miller preposterous.
The suit asserted claims of defamation, deprivation of rights and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Miller was booked in Riverside and released on $5,000 bail.
Neither Bianco nor the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department responded immediately to a request for comment on Miller’s lawsuit.
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