Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco is not the type of elected official who shies away from making controversial public statements.
The right-wing firebrand, who is rumored to be considering a 2026 gubernatorial run, put himself back into the political spotlight over the weekend when he said his deputies probably had thwarted a third assassination attempt on former President Trump.
Before a Trump rally in Coachella, Bianco’s deputies arrested Vem Miller, a Trump supporter from Los Angeles, who was caught trying to enter the rally carrying two loaded weapons, a fake ID, a phony license plate and a fake passport.
Miller said that he had no plans to kill the former president and that he carried the firearms for self-protection.
“I probably did have deputies that prevented the third assassination attempt,” Bianco told reporters after the arrest. “I truly do believe that we prevented another assassination attempt.”
But on Tuesday, Bianco backtracked slightly from his comments, which helped turn Miller’s arrest into a national story.
“Three days later, IF everything Mr. Miller has said is true, and I really hope it is, then he probably wasn’t there to hurt former President Trump,” Bianco said in a text message to The Times. “I definitely said it and can’t change that.”
Bianco said he made the comments at the time of the arrest based on finding a fake passport and fake IDs in Miller’s car, as well as Miller’s use of a fake license plate. Bianco said it is still not clear whether Miller intended to assassinate Trump.
“There is no way for us to know for sure. That is up to further investigation, if any, from the FBI,” he said.
Bianco’s comments incensed Miller, who told The Times that he had no plan to assassinate Trump, but that he now planned to file a “massive lawsuit” against Bianco and the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office over Bianco’s comments.
“Everything they said about me is untrue, provably so,” Miller told The Times. “Unfortunately, he appears to have committed career suicide.”
Critics of Bianco say the sheriff’s comments are indicative of his off-the-cuff nature, which sometimes gets him into trouble.
“I’m not surprised at these statements. I find him to be a very emotional response leader. He’s not speaking about the facts of the investigation, he expands that to what he believes to be the case,” said Michael Lujan, a former sheriff’s deputy who lost in an election against Bianco.
Lujan called Bianco’s statements irresponsible.
But other law enforcement officers disagreed.
Ed Obayashi, a law enforcement advisor to agencies throughout California, said that although he does not always approve of Bianco’s public statements, he found the sheriff’s comments on Miller’s arrest to be within the bounds of his duties as an elected law enforcement officer.
“He’s a public figure talking about a matter of public concern. He didn’t say the guy was planning an assassination attempt. He said he ‘probably’ was planning one. There’s a world of difference there.”
Obayashi said that Bianco was making comments based on his impressions of the case and that there could be evidence Bianco has that the public is unaware of.
When he spoke at the news conference after Miller’s arrest, Bianco said he could not share all the information he had about the case.
Whether or not the comments were inappropriate, Miller will have a tough time winning a defamation lawsuit, said Jean-Paul Jassy, a defamation attorney. Jassy said speculation like Bianco’s is usually not sufficient to prove defamation, which requires an inaccurate factual statement.
“I think that this individual would likely have a hard time showing defamation under the circumstances,” Jassy said.
It’s far from the first time Bianco has courted controversy from his perch in Riverside as the top law enforcement officer.
Riverside City Councilmember Clarissa Cervantes sued Bianco last year after the sheriff posted on social media accusing her of joining and supporting abortion rights activists who vandalized Riverside’s courthouse.
Eight protesters were arrested for the vandalism.
Cervantes denied joining the protest, saying she merely walked past the courthouse and inquired as to what was going on. When she heard law enforcement was handling the vandalism she thanked them and left, she said.
“Unfortunately, Bianco has a history of speaking to the public and making statements without evidence, as seen in my case. I was a victim of completely different allegations, which jeopardized the lives and safety of myself and my family. Any allegations made by the Sheriff without offering evidence are reckless, harmful, and dangerous,” Cervantes said in a statement to The Times.
In May, Bianco endorsed Trump for president in a tongue-in-cheek social media post.
“I think it’s time we put a felon in the White House. Trump 2024 baby,” he said in an Instagram video during which he excoriated what he sees as California’s soft-on-crime policies.
The incident comes only a month after an assassination attempt at Trump’s golf resort in Florida. In July, a would-be assassin shot Trump in the ear at a rally in Butler, Pa.
Cervantes also suggested Bianco made the comments about Miller for political purposes.
“What better way to capture the limelight than to be the hero in another ‘attempted assassination’?” she said.