diff --git a/.build/build-resolver.xml b/.build/build-resolver.xml
index f536dda1f1..793937ddf0 100644
--- a/.build/build-resolver.xml
+++ b/.build/build-resolver.xml
@@ -202,11 +202,6 @@
         <get src="${artifact.python.pypi}/59/a0/cf4cd997e1750f0c2d91c6ea5abea218251c43c3581bcc2f118b00baf5cf/futures-2.1.6-py2.py3-none-any.whl" dest="${user.home}/.m2/repository/org/apache/cassandra/deps/futures-2.1.6-py2.py3-none-any.zip" usetimestamp="true" quiet="true" skipexisting="true"/>
         <get src="${artifact.python.pypi}/73/fb/00a976f728d0d1fecfe898238ce23f502a721c0ac0ecfedb80e0d88c64e9/six-1.12.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl" dest="${user.home}/.m2/repository/org/apache/cassandra/deps/six-1.12.0-py2.py3-none-any.zip" usetimestamp="true" quiet="true" skipexisting="true"/>
 
-        <!-- python-driver -->
-        <get src="${lib.download.base.url}/lib/cassandra-driver-internal-only-3.25.0.zip" dest="${user.home}/.m2/repository/org/apache/cassandra/deps/cassandra-driver-internal-only-3.25.0.zip" usetimestamp="true" quiet="true" skipexisting="true"/>
-        <!-- the following would be better, but its subdirectory is python-driver-3.25.0 instead of cassandra-driver-3.25.0 -->
-        <!--get src="https://codeload.github.com/datastax/python-driver/zip/refs/tags/3.25.0" dest="${user.home}/.m2/repository/org/apache/cassandra/deps/cassandra-driver-internal-only-3.25.0.zip" usetimestamp="true" quiet="true"/-->
-
         <!-- apache/cassandra/lib -->
         <get src="${lib.download.base.url}/lib/geomet-0.1.0.zip" dest="${user.home}/.m2/repository/org/apache/cassandra/deps/geomet-0.1.0.zip" usetimestamp="true" quiet="true" skipexisting="true"/>
         <get dest="${user.home}/.m2/repository/org/apache/cassandra/deps/sigar-bin/" quiet="true" usetimestamp="true" skipexisting="true">
@@ -237,7 +232,6 @@
         
         <copy todir="${build.lib}" quiet="true">
             <file file="${user.home}/.m2/repository/org/apache/cassandra/deps/futures-2.1.6-py2.py3-none-any.zip"/>
-            <file file="${user.home}/.m2/repository/org/apache/cassandra/deps/cassandra-driver-internal-only-3.25.0.zip"/>
             <file file="${user.home}/.m2/repository/org/apache/cassandra/deps/six-1.12.0-py2.py3-none-any.zip"/>
             <file file="${user.home}/.m2/repository/org/apache/cassandra/deps/geomet-0.1.0.zip"/>
         </copy>
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 36d8d22034..8754b17f60 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ data/
 conf/hotspot_compiler
 doc/cql3/CQL.html
 lib/
+!lib/cassandra-driver-internal-only-*.zip
 
 # C* debs
 build-stamp
diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index efd6c60556..6dd8bab086 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 4.0-rc1
+ * Add back the source release of python driver in tree to avoid fetching from GitHub APIs (CASSANDRA-16599)
  * Fix false unavailable for queries due to cluster topology changes (CASSANDRA-16545)
  * Fixed a race condition issue in nodetool repair where we poll for the error before seeing the error notification, leading to a less meaningful message (CASSANDRA-16585)
  * Fix mixed cluster GROUP BY queries (CASSANDRA-16582)
diff --git a/build.xml b/build.xml
index 31c1fe9cfe..2fddbb0016 100644
--- a/build.xml
+++ b/build.xml
@@ -377,7 +377,9 @@
     <target depends="clean" name="cleanall"/>
 
     <target name="realclean" depends="clean" description="Remove the entire build directory and all downloaded artifacts">
-        <delete dir="${build.lib}" />
+        <delete>
+          <fileset dir="${build.lib}" excludes="cassandra-driver-internal-only-*"/>
+        </delete>
         <delete dir="${build.dir}" />
         <delete dir="${doc.dir}/build" />
         <delete dir="${doc.dir}/source/tools/nodetool" />
diff --git a/lib/cassandra-driver-internal-only-3.25.0.zip b/lib/cassandra-driver-internal-only-3.25.0.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ecfd6a946e
Binary files /dev/null and b/lib/cassandra-driver-internal-only-3.25.0.zip differ