diff --git a/tuf/requests_fetcher.py b/tuf/requests_fetcher.py
index e7d0ef812d..e867e6b82b 100644
--- a/tuf/requests_fetcher.py
+++ b/tuf/requests_fetcher.py
@@ -79,6 +79,7 @@ def fetch(self, url, required_length):
     try:
       response.raise_for_status()
     except requests.HTTPError as e:
+      response.close()
       status = e.response.status_code
       raise tuf.exceptions.FetcherHTTPError(str(e), status)