The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | December 11th, 2025: Why The Legal Justification For The Tanker Seizure Is Solid & U.S. Chips in Putin’s Arsenal

Episode Date: December 11, 2025

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin: We take a closer look at the dramatic U.S. seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker and examine the legal authority behind the raid. Venezuela is calling it piracy, while the U.S. insists the case is clear-cut. We’ll explain what the law actually says. Later in the show, several major U.S. chipmakers — including Intel and AMD — are facing lawsuits accusing them of failing to prevent their technology from ending up in Russian missiles and drones used in Ukraine. We’ll break down the allegations. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting https://PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Tax Relief Advocates: End your tax nightmare today by visiting us online at https://TRA.com/podcast  Birch Gold: Text PDB to 989898 and get your free info kit on gold TriTails Premium Beef: Get 15% OFF the ‘I’ll Be Home for Christmas’ steak box. Order by Dec 14 at https://TriTailsBeef.com   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Looking to diversify and protect your hard-earned assets, well, schedule a free consultation with the Birchcold Group. They're the precious metal specialists. Just text PDB to the number 989-89-89-8-8-8-8, and you'll receive a free, no-obligation information kit, and you'll learn how to convert an existing IRA or a 401k into a gold IRA. Again, text PDB to 989-89-89. It's Thursday, the 11th of December. Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First up, we're taking a closer look at the U.S. seizure of that Venezuelan oil tanker and the legal authority behind it. Venezuela is calling it piracy, but the U.S. says the case is open and shut. We'll break down what the law

actually says. Later in the show, several major U.S. chipmakers, including Intel and AMD, are now facing lawsuits, accusing them of failing to keep the their technology out of Russian missiles and drones that are used in Ukraine. We'll look at the allegations. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. I want to return to the story of the oil tanker that was seized off the coast of Venezuela yesterday and take a closer look at the legal justification for that operation. But before we get to the law and the authorities behind it, Venezuela is now offering its first public reaction and, well, not surprisingly, they don't seem pleased. In a statement from the Venezuelan foreign ministry, Caracas condemned the seizure as a,

quote, act of piracy and a grave international crime, as opposed to, I don't know, stealing a national election or aiding and abetting narco-traffickers or imprisoning opposition leaders or squashing any dissent, you know, that sort of thing. According to documents from Venezuela's state oil company Peta Vesa, the tanker left Venezuela on the 2nd of December carrying about 2 million barrels of heavy crude. Now, roughly half that cargo reportedly belonged to a Cuban state-run oil importer. As an aside, in its good background and context, Cuba's economy is heavily reliant on the Maduro regime. Essentially, they're propping up Cuba's communist government and keeping their economy from total collapse. Now, here on the PDB, we try not to carry water for any

administration, Republican or Democrat, but understanding the underlying legal justification for this seizure is important. because without that context, it's easy for all sides to start shouting past one another. And in this case, whether people like the decision or not, the legal grounds for the seizure aren't actually clear. First, we need to understand what this particular tanker known as the skipper actually is. And by the way, how great was Alan Hale Jr. as the skipper on Gilligan's island? But I digress. Anyway, the tanker, the skipper, is part of Iran's so-called shadow fleet, Just like Russia has a shadow fleet to evade sanctions, Iran maintains a similar network of old opaque

tankers that conceal their locations, forge or obscure their ownership records, change flags frequently, and shut off their transponders while moving sanctioned oil around the world. And a skipper has been on the U.S. radar for quite some time. The ship was sanctioned back in November of 2022, and that's important because that sanction was issued under the Biden administration. not the Trump administration. The vessel, which at the time sailed under the name Adisa, was designated as part of a much larger international oil smuggling network that facilitated shipments and generated revenue for Hezbollah and for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and their Quds force. In other words, it's not just a ship-carrying Venezuelan crude.

According to U.S. sanctions authorities, it's been part of a financial pipeline to two of the most heavily sanctioned entities on Earth. When the Treasury Department sanctioned the Adisa in 2022, it released a statement describing the vessel as part of a, quote, vast, complex and interwoven global network of front companies used to facilitate illicit oil shipments. Treasury went on to describe how the network operated to, quote, conceal the Iranian origins of the shipments and exporting it around the world in support of Hezbollah and the IRGC Quds Force, using layers of shell companies incorporated in places like the Marshall Islands, Mauritius and Singapore. That matters because under U.S. law, anything that materially supports a

sanctioned terrorist organization or its financing networks can be targeted for seizure. That includes property, assets, and in this case, a tanker. The seizure warrant, executed this week by the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Coast Guard was issued under those authorities, namely sanctions law in the U.S. Maritime Seizure and Forfeiture Statutes. And yet, Yes, these operations often occur in international waters, which Venezuela and Iran now claim violates international law. Oh, as in the side, we reported just the other day here on the PDB that the Iranian regime seized a legitimate non-sanctioned oil tanker near the Strait of Hormuz. Apparently, the Mullahs didn't consider that to be a violation of international law.

But again, I digress. Under U.S. law and under U.S. court rulings going back decades, vessels involved in sanctions evasion, terrorism financing or illicit smuggling, can be seized through what's known as in-rem jurisdiction. That means the U.S. government brings a case against the vessel itself, regardless of where the ship's beneficial owners might be. In this case, the U.S. asserts that the skipper was carrying sanctioned crude, operating under a previously sanctioned identity, and acting in support of a terrorist-linked smuggling network. That allows the Justice Department to seek forfeiture, auction the vessel, or dispose of it through other legal means once the case moves through the courts. Now, whether you agree with the policy or not is

a separate question, of course, as is whether or not the skipper was simply a target of opportunity for the White House to flex a little muscle. But the legal basis is not ambiguous. The ship was sanctioned, its network was sanctioned, its operators were sanctioned, and under U.S. law, that opens the door for the kind of operation that we saw in that dramatic video. U.S. agents fast roping onto the deck of a vessel that Washington argues should never have been operating in the first place. All right, coming up next, Intel, AMD, and other U.S. chip manufacturers are being sued over claims that their chips ended up in Russian missiles and drones that have been used to target

Ukraine. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here with a message from our friends at Ridge Wallets. Now, before I switched to using a Ridge wallet, I was carrying around one of those giant leather bricks for a wallet. I mean, you know what I'm talking about, right? They're bulky, falling apart, and honestly, it hurts your back just sitting on something like that all day long.

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Heinz, and all birds continue to trust and use them. With Shopify on your side, turn your big business idea into... Sign up for your $1 per month trial at Shepard. Shopify.com slash special offer. Welcome back to the afternoon bulletin. The warning signs have been stacking up in Ukraine for months, fragments of Russian missiles and intercepted Iranian drones, and inside them, American-made semiconductor chips.

Now it's all coming to a head in a Dallas courtroom where four Texas companies are being sued for allegedly, admittedly, inadvertently, fueling Russian attacks on Ukraine's military, civilian, and energy infrastructure. The five lawsuits filed Wednesday, specials. out a disturbing allegation. While Washington was arming Ukraine and trying to choke off Russia's supply lines, companies stateside were allegedly providing Russia with necessary components used in their arsenal. The suits accused the companies of gross negligence, wrongful death, and looking the other way as their chips wound up inside missiles and drones. And for the families bringing these cases,

this isn't some abstract policy failure. It's the reason that their homes were destroyed by Russian strikes and their loved ones never came home. The legal team is led by Mikal Watts and James Shaw, who represent about 20 plaintiffs, including relatives of 14 people killed in Russian strikes. And what they're alleging demonstrates just how interconnected the world and global economies are, and speaks to how resourceful the Russian war machine is and obtaining necessary materials despite sanctions. For the defendants, the companies include Texas instruments, advanced micro-devices, Intel and Mouser Electronics, all accused of allowing their chips to be illegally diverted into weapons in Moscow and Tehran deploy against Ukrainian cities. I want to point out that for a country

that has invested more than $175 billion in Ukraine's defense, the idea that American-made components are guiding enemy missiles is a, well, a surreal allegation. Watts, who just returned from a nine-day investigative trip to Ukraine, said the presence of U.S. built components in the wreckage of Russian attacks undermines Washington's own strategy. He told reporters, quote, most of the damage we're seeing there now is being caused by missiles and drones, guided to their targets by American chip technology that's being illegally exported into Russia. Watts added that the companies made no effort to restrict distribution, quote, other than to check the box to say that I'm not directly selling to a guy named Vladimir Putin,

before arguing that company executives, quote, know full well that these chips are getting there. For the family's suing, they say compensation is secondary. Their central demand is to stop American-made electronics from steering weapons into playgrounds and apartments and other civilian sites. At the core of the filings is a charge of, quote, domestic corporate negligence, accusing the firms of choosing profits over safeguards

meant to prevent their products from being diverted into enemy weapon systems. Forensic analysis of destroyed missiles and drones, repeatedly identified components traceable to the defendant companies, suggesting a pattern of diversion that persisted despite two years of sanctions and export controls. Now, it's important to note that the companies have not yet been served, but even at this early stage, the lawsuits map out the most detailed effort yet to draw a legal line between America's semiconductor industry and the weapons that are targeting Ukrainian cities. And that, my friends, is the BDB afternoon bulletin for Thursday, the 11th of December.

If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at BDB at thefirsttv.com. And to listen to the show ad-free, well, you can do that, and it is very simple. Just become a premium member of the president's daily brief by visiting pdb premium.com. I told you it was simple. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool. Hey, Mike Baker here, with a great holiday opportunity from our friends at Birch Gold Group.

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