Following a briefing in June 2025 to inform President Donald Trump that his name was in the Epstein files, the Department of Justice and the FBI quietly issued a joint memo that shook the administration to its foundation.
Now Raw Story can reveal that the White House was directly involved in crafting that memo, which sought to close the book on the scandal surrounding the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein by claiming an FBI review uncovered no “evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties,” and that “no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.”
The memo’s release in July 2025 triggered a tsunami of backlash, including from Trump's MAGA base, with many outraged supporters calling for the firing of then-Attorney General Pam Bondi. The president himself remained relatively insulated from criticism at the time.
But recently seen FBI emails show that Taylor Budowich, then White House deputy chief of staff, was directly involved in crafting the memo.
“Have something I can edit?” Budowich wrote from his iPhone two weeks before the memo’s eventual release, in an email thread with the subject line, “Re: Draft memo from DOJ – we have not edited it yet.”
FBI Director Kash Patel responded: “Just got it from DOJ. Here you go. Thanks.”
The following week, Budowich sent an email to Patel and then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche that included the words, “Some suggested edits.” The White House’s specific input on the memo is not known because the FBI redacted the five lines that cover Budowich’s suggestions.
A July 2, 2025 email from former Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich shows the White House's involvement in drafting the infamous Epstein memo jointly released by the Department of Justice and FBI.FBI
The next day, Budowich informed Blanche and Patel that he had shared the draft memo with the White House communications team, adding that the final product needed to be on Department of Justice and FBI letterhead.
On July 4, a Friday, just after 5 p.m., Blanche sent a “final version” to Budowich with a note explaining that they “did not put this on any letterhead.”
Blanche’s effort to avoid attaching the Department of Justice’s name on the memo prompted a withering response from Budowich.
“I need a version on letterhead,” Budowich wrote on his iPhone mid-morning the following Saturday. “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.”
The memo was leaked to Axios and then quietly released on July 7, 2025.
But the emails between Budowich and the other officials were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed against the Department of Justice by Democracy Defenders Fund, a nonprofit dedicated to safeguarding American democracy.
"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 nonprofit, 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."
A former Tea Party organizer, Budowich previously served as a senior advisor to Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign and then led the MAGA Inc. super PAC that mobilized support for the 2024 campaign. After leaving the White House in September 2025, Budowich founded the Sovereign Advisors, described as “a discreet D.C.-based public affairs and crisis communications firm.” He serves on the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, at the appointment of House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Budowich, who could not be reached for comment for this story, is described in the blockbuster New York Times story by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, based on reporting for their book Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, as a participant in at least two meetings at the White House Situation Room at which top administration officials strategized on how to respond to the unfolding Epstein crisis.
The Times also reported that Budowich was present at a meeting at which White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles confronted then FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino about an alleged leak for a story about Epstein and Trump, and at a separate meeting about how to respond to a subpoena from the House Oversight Committee.
The Times' story describes an email chain in which Patel and Blanche workshopped the July 7 memo in advance of its release but includes no mention of Budowich’s role in shaping it. The Times reported that the impetus to draft the memo came from the White House and Department of Justice, without specifying which White House officials were involved. The story described the starting point for the memo as a consensus that “full transparency” would be “a nonstarter.”
“Once again, I am alarmed but not surprised by the reporting that the White House was directly involved in drafting the unsigned memo in July 2025 which made multiple bogus claims, including that there was no ‘client list,’ no co-conspirators, and no grounds for further disclosure,” Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, told Raw Story.
Dean co-signed an open letter with Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the ranking Democrat on the committee, earlier this month urging Blanche and Patel to investigate more than a half dozen potential co-conspirators.
The White House did not directly respond to questions about what changes Budowich requested in the memo and why the White House didn’t release the memo itself. White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis instead issued a blanket defense of Trump’s handling of the Epstein scandal.
“Just as President Trump has said, he’s been totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein,” Bis told Raw Story. In fact, while Trump has not been criminally charged, he has not been formally exonerated either.
“And by releasing thousands of pages of documents, cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena request, signing the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and calling for more investigations into Epstein’s Democratic friends. President Trump has done more for Epstein’s victims than anyone before him.”
Following passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act and the release of roughly 3.5 million pages by the Department of Justice in late 2025 and early 2026, congressional Democrats and others have disputed the July 2025 memo. Democratic lawmakers and many of Epstein’s victims concluded that the released files, even with significant redactions, revealed the opposite of the claim by the Department of Justice and FBI that there was no evidence to predicate investigations of potential co-conspirators.
“There are numerous investigative leads that must be followed, despite Mr. Blanche’s claim that there are none,” survivor Dani Bensky testified during Blanche’s Senate confirmation hearing in July. Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell “did not abuse women and children alone,” Bensky said. “Others enabled these crimes, exploited victims and avoided accountability for decades.”
The Department of Justice did not return emails for this story, but Blanche defended the agency’s handling of the matter during his confirmation hearing, stating, “We will never not do anything we can to prosecute anybody that committed any crimes against these women.” He added: “If we learn today, if we learn next week, if we learn next month that there’s an individual we can investigate, indict and prosecute out of the Epstein files, you better believe it, we will.”
Dean and other members of Congress who have reviewed the unredacted versions of the files said they have found evidence of potential criminal acts by Epstein associates that warrant investigation.
“From the beginning it has been clear that Pam Bondi, Todd Blanche and the rest of President Trump’s team would and will do anything to cover up the president’s close relationship with Epstein and to protect their political allies,” Dean told Raw Story. “Not a single person has been prosecuted by this Department of Justice, and they continue to withhold the files that they are legally required to release.”
In their open letter to Blanche and Patel, Dean and Raskin pointed to a 2014 message from a redacted email to Epstein asking if a young woman was “for me, or are you keeping her for yourself?”
The lawmakers discovered the address behind the redaction was “President@Bard.edu,” pointing to Leon Botstein, then the president of Bard College. Botstein had already resigned as president, but then stepped down from all of his positions affiliated with the college on the same day Raskin and Dean sent a letter to the college administration. Botstein has denied any criminal wrongdoing while saying that he did not “author or send” the email.
“We urge you — once again — to undertake a serious investigation, rather than a cover-up, of the countless potential crimes suggested in evidence in the Epstein files,” Raskin and Dean wrote to Blanche and Patel. “This would require you to abandon your risible lie that there is no evidence in the Epstein files that could predicate an investigation into third parties.”
Taylor Budowich email 2
Taylor Budowich email 2 www.documentcloud.org
Email exchange among White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino on Epstein draft memo
