Who Edited the Epstein Memo Before the FBI Released It?

Two weeks before the FBI released its July 2025 memo declaring the Epstein case closed, Taylor Budowich — then the White House deputy chief of staff — emailed FBI Director Kash Patel with a direct request: "Have something I can edit?"

The subject line read "Re: Draft memo from DOJ—we have not edited it yet." Patel replied hours later: "Just got it from DOJ. Here you go. Thanks." The next day, Budowich told Patel he had passed the draft to the White House communications team.

The messages were obtained by Raw Story and reported by The New Republic. Budowich is now president of Innovation Council Action; he is described as a former deputy chief of staff and Cabinet secretary under President Donald Trump.

The memo itself concluded there was no "client list," no punishable co-conspirators, and no grounds for further investigation. That finding infuriated Trump's MAGA base and set off a chain of events that eventually ousted ex–Attorney General Pam Bondi.

What the emails establish is narrower than what partisans on either side may claim. They show the White House had edit access to the draft before publication. They do not show who at the Justice Department originated the draft, what specific edits — if any — the White House made, or whether the communications team's involvement changed the memo's conclusions rather than only its language.

The process question is the one that matters: who wrote the conclusion that there was nothing left to investigate, and who got to touch it first. If the White House had hands on the draft before it went public, the memo's central finding stops looking like an independent FBI judgment and starts looking like a communications product. That distinction matters for anyone who wanted the Epstein files pursued rather than closed.

Congress has not dropped the thread. The House Oversight Committee has continued its own Epstein probe. On July 15, 2026, Kathryn Ruemmler — former Obama White House counsel — testified that it "was a mistake to deal with" Epstein but that she never witnessed criminal activity.

The open questions are concrete and answerable: what edits were made, who at DOJ drafted the memo, and whether the White House's involvement shaped the conclusion or only the wording. Those are the questions congressional investigators now have a documented basis to press.