The Secret Service is refuting claims made by a sheriff in California’s Coachella Valley that the man arrested over the weekend with two guns at a checkpoint for President Trump’s campaign rally was there to carry out a third assassination attempt.

“The U.S. Secret Service assesses that the incident did not impact protective operations and former President Trump was not in any danger. While no federal arrest has been made at this time, the investigation is ongoing,” reads a joint statement from the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Vem Miller was arrested after two firearms were found in his SUV but he says that authorities at the Riverside County Sheriff’s office have the wrong idea about him and that he doesn’t even know how to fire the guns.

“I always travel around with my firearms in the back of my truck. I’ve literally never even shot a gun in my life,” Mr. Miller said in a phone interview with Fox News.

The Las Vegas native was arrested at a checkpoint for the campaign event on Saturday and accused of plotting what would have been a third attempt to assassinate Trump. Mr. Miller said that he had no intention of shooting the Republican presidential candidate, going so far as saying that Trump is “brave” for going after the media.

“This is a man that I deeply admire because I was a closet individual in terms of my beliefs because I worked in Hollywood. As my politics started to change, I realized that Hollywood is a homogenous community,” Mr. Miller continued underscoring the point that he was forced to hide his political beliefs.

Mr. Miller told the news outlet that he started keeping the guns after he began receiving threats on his life for starting the America Happens Network — a series of produced news videos on the social media platform Rumble.

“I don’t know anything about guns. I am beyond a novice,” he said.

Mr. Miller’s car was discovered with multiple weapons as he pulled up to the checkpoint for Saturday’s rally.

“On Saturday, October 12, 2024, at 4:59 p.m., deputies assigned to former President Donald Trump’s rally in the Coachella Valley contacted the driver of a black SUV at a checkpoint,” the Riverside County sheriff’s office said in a statement. “The male driver … was found to be illegally in possession of a shotgun, a loaded handgun, and a high-capacity magazine.”

The sheriff said Mr. Miller was “taken into custody without incident and later booked … for possession of a loaded firearm and possession of a high-capacity magazine.

“This incident did not impact the safety of former President Trump or attendees of the event,” the sheriff’s office added. 

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco told the Riverside Press-Enterprise in the wake of the incident that his officers “probably stopped another assassination attempt” on Trump. 

At a follow-up press conference on Sunday, Mr. Bianco snapped back against claims that his original statement was overly dramatic.

“If you are asking me right now, I probably did have deputies that prevented the third assassination attempt,” he said. “If we are that politically lost that we have lost sight of common sense and reality and reason that we can’t say ‘Holy crap, why’d he show up with all that stuff for and loaded guns?’ and I am going to be accused of being dramatic? We have a serious, serious problem in this country. Because this is common sense and reason.”

“I certainly didn’t want to be saying after the fact: ‘I wish we had done something to prevent that shooting,’” he added. “There is absolutely no way any of us are going to truly know what was in his head.”

Mr. Bianco added that the weapons were unregistered and that he had multiple boxes of ammunition and multiple fake passports and driver’s licenses, as well as a fake license plate that indicated he may have been part of the “Sovereign Citizens” — a group of Americans that believe they are not subject to any government regulation.

Mr. Miller was later released on $5,000 bail and is scheduled to appear before a judge on January 2.

Unlike the two previous alleged would-be assassins, Thomas Crooks and Ryan Routh, Mr. Miller’s social media presence indicates a strong affinity for conservative causes. His Instagram account features photographs of him with notable right-wing figures, including a smiling picture alongside former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and another with far-right influencer Jack Posobiec.

Additionally, Mr. Miller shared an image from the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee which appears to show Donald Trump Jr. signing an item for him.