The memo, which declared there was no “client list,” identified no co-conspirators who could be prosecuted and found no grounds for further investigation, triggered anger among Trump’s MAGA supporters and contributed to the political fallout that eventually led to the departure of former Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Emails obtained by Raw Story show that Taylor Budowich, then White House deputy chief of staff, was involved in the drafting process before the memo’s public release, communicating directly with FBI Director Kash Patel about revisions and its presentation.
“Have something I can edit?” Budowich wrote to Patel two weeks before the memo was released.
“Just got it from DOJ. Here you go. Thanks,” Patel replied hours later.
The following day, Budowich told Patel he had forwarded the draft to the White House communications team, adding that it needed to be placed on Justice Department and FBI letterhead.
Nearly a week later, then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche sent Budowich a version described as final, but it still failed to meet the White House official’s expectations because it lacked the Justice Department’s identifying seal.
“I need a version on letterhead,” Budowich wrote, insisting that the document needed official authentication before being shared with reporters.
“Someone needs to own this. I can’t give a doc to a reporter that could easily be confused with a [high school] term paper, so need to provide some validation of the doc,” he added.
Diego Pestana, Blanche’s counsel, supplied the requested version about 90 minutes later.
The correspondence indicates that White House officials were not merely receiving the FBI’s conclusions but were involved in shaping the document that formalized the decision to end further scrutiny of the Epstein files.
“These records show that Kash Patel worked hand in hand with the former White House deputy chief of staff on the 2025 DOJ-FBI memo, which stated there would be no further investigation or release of the Epstein files,” Chris Swartz, senior counsel and deputy director of ethics and anti-corruption at the Democracy Defenders Fund, told Raw Story.
“It’s deeply concerning that the FBI coordinated with the White House on this memo, given President Trump’s well-documented association with Jeffrey Epstein and Trump’s frequent mention in the files,” Swartz added.