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
11 Dec 2025
Chapter 1: What are the legal justifications for the U.S. seizure of the Venezuelan oil tanker?
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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.
Chapter 2: How does Venezuela respond to the tanker seizure?
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.
chip makers, including Intel and AMD, are now facing lawsuits accusing them of failing to keep 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.
Chapter 3: What is the significance of the Skipper tanker in the context of sanctions?
In a statement from the Venezuelan foreign ministry, Caracas condemned the seizure as a, quote, active 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, Petrovesa, 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.
Chapter 4: What are the implications of U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil shipments?
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 the 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 Addisa, 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 EDISA 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."
The 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 on the U.S.
maritime seizure and forfeiture statutes. And yes, these operations often occur in international waters, which Venezuela and Iran now claim violates international law. Oh, as an aside, 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.
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Chapter 5: How are U.S. chipmakers implicated in the Ukraine conflict?
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.
Chapter 6: What allegations are being made against Intel and AMD?
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 US 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.
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Chapter 7: How do the lawsuits against chip manufacturers impact U.S. foreign policy?
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Chapter 8: What are the potential consequences for American companies involved in these cases?
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Again, that number is 866-885-1881. Or simply visit AmericanFinancing.net slash PDB. 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 spell 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 Mikhail 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 in obtaining necessary materials despite sanctions.
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