The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | September 8th, 2025: REVEALED: What FBI Agents Took From John Bolton's Home & Trump Hostage Protection Order

Episode Date: September 8, 2025

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin: Newly unsealed court records reveal exactly what FBI agents seized from the home of former National Security Adviser John Bolton. The Trump administration announces a new executive order targeting countries that wrongfully detain Americans, with penalties aimed at governments that use U.S. citizens as bargaining chips. 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/@presidentsdailybriefBirch Gold: Text PDB to 989898 and get your free info kit on goldLean: Visit https://TakeLean.com & use code PDB for 20% off CBDistillery: Visit https://CBDistillery.com and use promo code PDB for 25% off your entire order!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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detain Americans with a new executive order promising penalties for governments that use U.S. citizens as bargaining chips. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. We're starting off today with a story that we've been following here on the PDB, the dramatic raid on the home and office of former National Security Advisor John Bolton. Court records, just unsealed, are now giving us a much clearer picture of what federal agents boxed up and took away from the searches. Now, in case you haven't been keeping up with this story, here's the backdrop. Late last month, FBI agents showed up at Bolton's house in Bethesda, Maryland, and also searched his Washington, D.C. office. The raid was part of an investigation into whether Bolton mishandled classified information material tied to his time inside

the Trump White House. The raid itself made headlines at the time with video of FBI agents hauling out boxes from Bolton's home. But you asked yourself at the time, what was in those boxes? That was unclear, until now. According to an inventory filed in court because they're obligated to submit an inventory of what they took, agents seized quite a haul. They walked away with three computers, including a desktop, and two laptops, along with two iPhones, a hard drive, and two USB drives. But it wasn't just the electronics. They also collected four boxes of, quote, printed daily activities, plus typed documents in folders labeled Trump 1 through 4. One more item that jumps off the page, a white binder labeled statements and reflections to

allied strikes. There's no detail on the specifics of what that binder or the other documents contain. But taken together, the lists suggest that Bolton was keeping a pretty detailed paper trail from his time in government. So, why does this matter? Because investigators say that this is all tied to the possibility that Bolton improperly removed or retained national defense information, language that comes directly from provisions of the Espionage Act of 1917. Let me stress this point. This isn't espionage in the cloak and dagger spying for foreign powers sense. This is about whether he kept sensitive government records that he wasn't supposed to have, and whether he shared them in ways that he wasn't authorized to. And yes, according to modern English rules, I can finish a

sentence with the word too. If prosecutors were to bring charges under those statutes, Bolton could, in theory, be facing decades in prison, up to 25 years. Now, it's worth noting that Bolton hasn't been arrested and he hasn't been charged with any crimes. The affidavit supporting the search warrant is still sealed, which means we don't know. what evidence actually led the judge to sign off on the raid. And here's where the story takes on a political edge. According to reporting in the New York Post, the investigation was originally shelved during the Biden administration. But when the current FBI director came across the file earlier this year, he ordered it reopened. Officials speaking to the post go so far as to suggest that

Biden's Justice Department may have given Bolton a pass for political reasons, being that he's been a longtime critic of Trump. Bolton, for his part, isn't lying low. He's no shrinking violent. He's been active on social media and in op-eds since the raid, hammering Trump's foreign policy. In one piece, he even compared the raid on his home to what he described as the Trump administration's chaotic handling of Ukraine. And on X, he was blasting Trump's approach to India, saying the president's maneuvers have pushed New Delhi closer to Russia and China. So where does this leave us? On the one hand, we've got a former top national security official under investigation for mishandling classified material, a storyline, of course, that's already loomed large in American politics

over the past few years. On the other hand, Bolton remains a very public critic of Trump, which guarantees that this investigation will continue to be viewed through a partisan lens no matter what happens next. Coming up next, the Trump administration's new executive order on wrongful detentions, what it means for Americans held over. overseas and which countries are in the crosshairs. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here. Let me ask you a question. Now, when you hear about inflation worries, or when you see that the national debt in the U.S. is over $37 trillion, or just when you look around at all the global uncertainty, do you ever think to yourself, hmm, I wonder if now would be a good time to buy gold? Well, that

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Restrictions apply. Welcome back to the PDB afternoon bulletin. Turning now to the White House, where President Trump has signed a new executive order aimed at governments that wrongfully detain Americans overseas. The move gives the administration, new tools to punish countries that use U.S. citizens as bargaining chips. According to the order, the State Department will now have the authority to impose penalties on foreign governments that hold Americans without justification. Those penalties could include economic sanctions, export controls, and or travel restrictions on government officials and other individuals. The administration says the policy is modeled on how the U.S. designates state sponsors of terrorism.

A senior official told reporters, the aim is to prevent wrongful dissensions altogether, saying, quote, we're going to cripple their economic systems. Now, the official specifically named China, Iran, and Afghanistan, as countries under review as the new rules take effect. They did not confirm whether Russia would be included. The executive order also opens the door to potential travel restrictions for U.S. passport holders who want to visit countries on the State Department's list. That possibility has already drawn criticism. The National Iranian-American Council called that measure a form of collective punishment that could unfairly impact diaspora communities. Now, for some context, wrongful detentions of Americans

abroad have challenged Republican and Democratic administrations alike. The Foley Foundation, which tracks these cases, says at least 40 U.S. nationals are currently held hostage or wrongfully detained across 14 countries. That includes Russia, Iran, Afghanistan, and China. China. Trump used the signing event to criticize the previous administration, claiming, and I should note without evidence, that more Americans had been taken prisoner than freed under President Biden. The Trump team says it's secured the release of 72 Americans since returning to office in January, though that figure includes both wrongful detention cases and a broader category known as cases of concern. Elizabeth Richards of the Foley Foundation, which again tracks these cases,

said, quote, it's a good day whenever an American returns home, and we want any administration in office to know they have the backing of the American people to make the tough decisions that will bring hostages home, end quote. One of the most high-profile Americans caught up in this issue is Paul Whelan, a former Marine, who spent more than five years behind bars in Russia after being convicted of espionage. That's a charge that U.S. officials, have long said, was a deliberate setup. He was released in 2024, as part of a prisoner's swap arranged under the Biden administration. Whelan said the new order could be a strong deterrent if enforced

and urged the administration to push for compensation for victims using frozen assets from the regime's responsible. The bottom line, this new executive order gives the administration's sharper tools to punish foreign governments that wrongfully hold Americans. Whether those tools will be applied consistently, and whether they actually deter governments like China, Iran, or Russia, well, that remains. to be seen. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Monday, the 8th of September. If you have any questions or comments, and I hope you do, please reach out to me at PDB at

thefirstTV.com. And of course, to listen to the show ad-free, as I've mentioned before, you can do that and you can do it very simply. Just become a premium member of the president's daily brief by visiting pdb premium.com. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool. Hey, Mike Baker here. You know those nights when you just don't sleep well, if at all, you know what I'm talking about? A fitful night's sleep, oh, it's terrible, tossing and turning, and then the next day, you know what, you're dragging, you're exhausted, and everything just feels harder. Well, that's where CBD from CB Distillery can make a real difference. And it's not just

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