A California man accused of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump has filed a sweeping $100 million defamation lawsuit against Riverside County.
Vem Miller, 49, from Los Angeles, was pulled over about half a mile from the then-GOP presidential candidate’s Coachella Valley campaign event on October 12 armed with an unregistered shotgun, a loaded handgun and a high-capacity magazine.
Miller was arrested and later pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanor gun charges. His pre-trial hearing was scheduled for Tuesday at Riverside County Superior Court.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, an avid-Trump fan who recently announced his plans to run for governor, said at a press conference after the arrest that his deputies had “probably” just thwarted a third assassination attempt on Trump in as many months. This came after attempts on the president’s life at a Pennsylvania rally in June and his West Palm Beach golf resort in September.
Miller has repeatedly denied that he intended to do any harm to Trump, condemning the allegation as “complete bulls***.”
On Monday, Miller’s legal team filed a 32-page complaint against Bianco, the RCSD and Riverside County in the U.S. District Court in the Central District of California.
He is seeking $100 million in damages, claiming that Biancos’s comments were baseless and defamatory and that they caused him irreparable harm due to significant media and public backlash.
“I am a Trump supporter. I’ve been helping with MAGA for a very long time and now I face myself… with a no-win situation,” Miller told reporters in the pouring rain in front of the Riverside Historic Courthouse Tuesday.
“Every day I get some sort of text or message insinuating threats against myself and my family.”
Also speaking to reporters Tuesday, Miller’s Attorney Ethan Bearman claimed that Bianco’s allegations were untrue.
“Mr. Miller has never said on October 12 or October 13 that he wants to kill the president,” he said. “These are not words he spoke. That is a false statement of fact.”
Monday marked the second time the sheriff, his department and the county have faced a lawsuit from Miller.
Four days after his October arrest, the plaintiff filed a suit in Nevada, claiming that the sheriff lied about the incident, violated his constitutional rights, and defamed him. Court records show that the case was dismissed late last month.
On Tuesday, Miller claimed it was he who alerted deputies at a rally checkpoint that he had firearms and asked whether he should turn the weapons in or keep them in the car while he attended the rally. He also denied the sheriff's department claims they found false documents, passports with a fake name, upon a search in his vehicle.
Miller used the spotlight this week to promote a documentary about Bianco, titled The 3rd Assassin. He handed out promotional cards and requested donations from the media.
“There was an assassination that happened on that day,” he said. “And it really was my character.”
The documentary can be viewed on Miller’s America Happens Network, a podcast and docuseries platform that he says tackles “topics of corruption, controversy and conspiracy.”
On the site, Miller sells bottles of chlorine dioxide, a bleach-like disinfectant that promises to help “eliminate things from your body that aren’t supposed to be there”—including COVID-19 and HIV.
Before Miller’s arrest in October, he posted photos of himself with several MAGA-aligned individuals, including Health and Human Service Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and British comedian Russell Brand.
Around the time of the first attempt on Trump’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July, Miller posted a picture on Instagram of the former president covered in blood, pumping his fist into the air.
“I am willing to fight non stop with everything I have for the next 4 years to help this country and this man,” he captioned the post.
In 2022, Miller made a failed run as a Republican state representative for Nevada’s Assembly District 13. He told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in May that year that he was motivated to run for office because “this country has been taken over by tyranny.”
The Independent has contacted the RCSD and Bearman for more information.
