The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | August 5th, 2025: Netanyahu Reveals Gaza Takeover Plan & DOJ Launches Grand Jury Probe Over 'Russiagate'

Episode Date: August 5, 2025

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:  First—Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has reportedly decided on an extremely controversial plan to fully occupy the Gaza Strip in a bid to free the remaining hostages and deal a death blow to Hamas. We’ll have the details. Later in the show—the Russiagate scandal intensifies. On Monday, Attorney General Pam Bondi directed federal prosecutors to launch a grand jury investigation into an alleged criminal conspiracy by members of the former Obama administration to undermine Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Birch Gold: Text PDB to 989898 and get your free info kit on gold TriTails Premium Beef: Visit https://trybeef.com/pdb & get 2 Free Flat Iron steaks DeleteMe: Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you text PDB to 64000. Message and data rates apply. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. We'll start things off in the Middle East. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has reportedly decided on an extremely controversial plan to fully occupy the Gaza Strip in a bid to free the remaining hostages and deal a final death blow to Hamas. Now, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that much of the international community will

not be thrilled with this plan. We'll have the details. Later in the show, the Russia scandal intensifies, which, frankly, is what all good scandals do. On Monday, Attorney General Pam Bondi directed federal prosecutors to launch a grand jury investigation into an alleged criminal conspiracy by members of the former Obama administration to undermine Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has reportedly decided on a plan to fully occupy the Gaza Strip and expand military operations into areas where hostages are likely still being held. But the plan to essentially annex large swaths of the battered enclave has left a security cabinet

and leaders of the Israel Defense Forces, the IDF, divided, obviously complicating internal deliberations. Netanyahu informed government ministers of his proposal on Monday and the plans, subsequently began leaking to the media. According to sources that spoke with the times of Israel, the prime minister's goal is to, quote, expand the military action to occupy the entirety of Gaza. But other sources said leaders in Jerusalem were hardly united behind the extremely controversial proposal. Defense Minister Israel Katz and Foreign Minister Gideon Tsar are reportedly among the cabinet members who are skeptical over whether the plan is feasible and have expressed concern that it could lead to further isolation of Israel. The IDF chief of staff is said to have been more blunt in

his opposition, arguing it would risk the lives of the hostages and IDF troops and create a serious logistical problem for the military, particularly as to where to house the roughly one million civilians who are now in Gaza City. But despite the pushback from the IDF and members of his cabinet, a senior official close to Netanyahu said, quote, the die is cast. We are going for a full occupation of the Gaza Strip, end quote. Undescoring the deepening divide between the political echelon and the military, the official added, quote, there will be operations even in areas where hostages are being held.

If the chief of staff doesn't agree, he should resign, end quote. Netanyahu convened a critical meeting of defense officials Tuesday night to discuss the military plans, and despite his alleged doubts, defense minister Katz promised to, quote, professionally implement whatever the government ultimately decides. The Prime Minister will then convene a meeting of a security cabinet to seek formal approval for the occupation, that's according to a report from the Washington Post. Now, the reality is, as it currently stands, the IDF already controls roughly 75% of the Gaza Strip. But under the new proposal, the military would move into the remaining territory,

including areas where they've never operated since the war began. This is where the major controversy lies. Since the war began following Hamas' brutal 7 October attacks, the IDF is mostly refrained from operating where Israeli intelligence indicates hostages are being held. Netanyahu believes that by surrounding the areas in Gaza where the remaining hostages are located, the IDF can conduct targeted raids to rescue those captives. But freed hostages have said that their captors are under orders to execute the remaining hostages if they think Israeli troops are approaching. IDF leadership, along with the families of the hostages, oppose any actions that could endanger

the lives of the hostages, arguing a negotiated ceasefire is the only viable way to bring them home alive. As a reminder, there are still 50 hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, though Israel believes roughly half are deceased. Additionally, the IDF has reportedly expressed concerns over the risk to troops, assessing that it will likely take years to clear all of Hamas's fighters and infrastructure in the enclave, both above and below ground. But as we've been tracking here on the PDB, Netanyahu is caught in an extremely difficult position. He's long been under immense pressure from far-right members of his governing coalition to unleash the full might of the Israeli military across Gaza. And ceasefire talks with Hamas, well, they've completely collapsed,

as Hamas has repeatedly scuttled negotiations. Hamas issued a statement over the weekend, saying they'll not disarm unless a fully independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital is established. Now, that's an extreme demand that has essentially shut down any hopes for a diplomatic breakthrough, leaving Netanyahu with few options, frankly, outside of continued military operations. The White House has not yet commented on Netanyahu's proposal, but the prime minister intimated last week that he has the blessing of the Trump administration to proceed as he sees fit. Leaked comments made by the U.S. envoy Steve Whitkoff to Israeli hostage families over the weekend to suggest a shift in tone from the White House. He told the families that the U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal had

failed and that President Trump now believes in a, quote, all-or-nothing strategy, adding there would be no more, quote, piecemeal deals. Some observers are speculating as to whether Nanyahu's plan is an attempt at an extreme brinkmanship, but senior Israeli military officials have expressed deep pessimism about the prospects for a comprehensive, negotiated deal at this late stage. All right, up next. Attorney General Pam Bondi directs federal prosecutors to launch a grand jury investigation into an alleged criminal conspiracy to undermine Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election. I'll be right back.

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back in the headlines, although I'm not sure if it ever left. This time, it's back in the headlines with subpoenas. Attorney General Pambondi boarded a grand jury investigation this week into what federal officials are now describing as a criminal conspiracy against Donald Trump during the 2016 election. The probe follows a criminal referral from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who last month declassified intelligence materials suggesting that the then-Obama administration knowingly advanced a false narrative to delegitimize Trump's then bid for the presidency. As part of the investigation, Bondi has instructed a federal prosecutor whose identity has not been made public to begin presenting evidence to a grand jury. That's a step that Justice Department officials say could result in criminal indictments.

In a statement, the DOJ said Bondi believes that there is, quote, a clear cause for deep concern and confirmed that the referral is being treated with the utmost seriousness. While no charges have been filed against any potential defendants, the DOJ's decision to precede marks a sharp escalation in the long-running controversy over the Trump-Russia collusion claims. The referral itself, reviewed exclusively by Fox News, includes a memorandum titled Intelligence Community Suppression of Intelligence, showing Russian and Criminal Actors didn't impact the 2016 presidential election via cyber attacks on infrastructure. According to officials familiar with its contents, the memo alleges that the exculpatory

intelligence was deliberately buried to bolster the narrative that Trump colluded with Moscow. At a recent press briefing, Gabbard directly accused former President Barack Obama and senior members of his national security team of orchestrating a post-election intelligence assessment, which she claims was later, quote, weaponized to paint Trump as a Kremlin asset. She bluntly said, quote, the American people were sold a fabrication. According to the declassified documents, Obama directed his top aides in December 2016, after Trump secured an election victory, to compile an intelligence report on Russian influence efforts. While the final assessment concluded that Moscow sought to so distrust in American Democratic institutions,

which frankly they've been doing for generations, it found no evidence that Russia altered the outcome of the election. Gabbard argued that those findings were later spun to create the illusion of collusion. Among those reportedly under federal scrutiny, our former CIA director John Brennan, former FBI director James Comey, and former Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper. As we've discussed here on the PDB, DOJ sources confirmed that Brennan and Comey are subjects of an ongoing criminal investigation, which could yield charges related to conspiracy or false statements. Brennan, notably, has also been investigated for allegedly lying to Congress. Although nearly a decade has passed since the events in question, DOJ officials note that

conspiracy charges could still be brought under statutes that apply to coordinated ongoing efforts. What's more, the grand jury probe draws new attention to a newly declassified annex to special counsel John Durham's report, released by the Senate Judiciary Committee. That annex, which we covered last week on the PDB, reveals a July 2016 plan personally approved by Hillary Clinton to link Trump to Russia in a move that was intended to distract from her email. scandal. The strategy, reportedly pitched by Clinton's then foreign policy advisor Julianne Smith, aimed to inject long-term suspicion of Russian influence into American political discourse. Taken together, the grand jury probe, although at its early stages, marks a dramatic legal

and political inflection point in what Trump allies have long characterized as a multi-agency intelligence operation to discredit the 45th and now 47th president of the U.S. Now, as I've said for years, Washington, D.C. is where investigations go to die. So I will be completely unsurprised if all of this comes to nothing. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Tuesday, the 5th of August. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at pdb at thefirsttv.com. And if you get a free minute or two in your otherwise busy day, I hope you'll check out and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

you can find that on YouTube at President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool. Hey, Mike Baker here. Let's talk online security and privacy. Now, it's a critically important issue, right?

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