What is a sovereign citizen? The anti-government group linked to armed suspect at Trump rally

As Vem Miller was arrested outside a Donald Trump rally in California on Saturday, authorities said they noticed something peculiar about his license plate: it was “obviously fake.”

The 49-year-old Las Vegas resident was pulled over about half a mile from the Coachella Valley campaign event armed with an unregistered shotgun, a loaded handgun, and a high-capacity magazine.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said at a press conference that his deputies had “probably” just thwarted a third assassination attempt on Trump in as many months, though the Secret Service has since said that Trump “was not in any danger.”

In the wake of Miller’s arrest, Bianco said the “homemade” license plate on his black SUV is “indicative of a group of individuals that claim to be sovereign citizens.”

“They are certainly considered a far-right group,” he added at the press conference.

The sovereign citizens movement consists of anti-government individuals who all share a common belief: that the law doesn’t apply to them.

Despite physically living in the US, they believe they are separate — or sovereign — from the nation.

In the past, some have pitched pseudo-legal arguments for why they shouldn’t have to obey the law, including insisting that they can disregard motor vehicle regulations because they are “travelers” not “drivers.”

Along with the alleged false plates, Miller was said to have been found with ID documents under multiple names.

Shortly after being released on $5,000 bail, Miller has repeatedly denied that he intended to do any harm on Trump, condemning the allegation as “complete bulls**t” in an interview with the Southern California News Group.

In fact, Miller described himself as a staunch Trump supporter, telling Fox News that the Republican presidential nominee is a man that he “deeply admires.”

Miller has posted photos of himself with several MAGA-aligned individuals in the past few weeks alone, including former third party presidential nominee-turned-Republican Trump ally Robert F Kennedy Jr and British comedian Russell Brand.

Around the time of the first attempt on Trump’s life at a Butler, Pennsylvania, in July, Miller posted a picture 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.

A key source of new recruits for the sovereign citizen movement has been the MAGA and QAnon movements, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

The Southern Poverty Law Center adds that the proliferation of conspiracy theories surrounding public health measures during the Covid-19 pandemic also drew new followers to the movement.

On his website American Happens Network, Miller sells bottles of chlorine dioxide, a bleach-like disinfectant, which he promises can help “eliminate things from your body that aren’t supposed to be there” — including Covid-19 and HIV.

However, Miller has also denied suggestions from Bianco that he is connected to the sovereign citizen movement.

“That’s a nonsensical statement,” he told Fox News. “I don’t think there’s such a thing.”

“Government is an inanimate object, it’s the individuals within government that matter, so no, I’m not a part of any of that,” Miller said of the citizen movement.

He also claims none of the documents that police found were fake, adding he sometimes uses his Armenian name and other times doesn’t.

Miller said he bought the firearms because of death threats he’s had since launching America Happens Network, a series of podcasts and docuseries that tackle “topics of corruption, controversy and conspiracy.”

He told Fox News that he had “never even shot a gun in his life,” despite police finding the loaded handgun in his car.

His business partner at American Happens Network, self-styled “anti-government libertarian” Mindy Robinson, agreed that Miller is innocent.

“There isn’t a universe his intention was to kill Trump, he’s worked too hard in this movement to expose the Deep State and all the people against him,” she wrote on X on Sunday.

Miller has not been charged with any federal crimes in connection with the Trump rally, and an investigation into the incident is ongoing.