Melania Trump’s shocking White House statement Thursday denying any relationship with Jeffrey Epstein could be an attempt to get ahead of a future story, podcast host Jennifer Welch says.
Welch, co-host of the I’ve Had It podcast, suggested that it would be naive to give the first lady the benefit of the doubt after she called for Congress to allow Epstein’s survivors to testify.
“I don’t believe Melania Trump has credibility for anything,” Welch told The Daily Beast Podcast host Joanna Coles. “In a normal world, I wish we could take the first lady at her word and say, ‘OK, she’s calling for a full investigation.’”
But Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general and President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, is now overseeing the investigation, Welch noted, after Trump had reportedly grown dissatisfied with Pam Bondi’s handling of it.
Blanche, Welch recalled, also met with Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell in prison last year for an interview in which she said Trump never did anything nefarious. Maxwell was then transferred to a cushier facility in Texas—a move that some Epstein victims said “smacks of a cover-up.”
“My immediate thing is: What’s about to drop? What are they getting in front of?” Welch continued. “Why is the wife of the man who’s mentioned over a million times in the Epstein files—why is she bringing this up?“
“The first instinct is always some form of self-preservation when people do something like this,” Welch said. “She’s talking about lies about her, when we’ve seen photographic evidence and an email that she and Ghislaine were really beyond acquaintances—were rather friendly.”
Melania denied having a relationship with Maxwell as well. However, a 2002 email she wrote to her suggests otherwise—as does Maxwell’s reply, in which she calls the future first lady “sweet pea.”
Welch then alluded to one point of interest in the saga: Amanda Ungaro, the ex-partner of Paolo Zampolli, a former modeling agent and now a U.S. special envoy, thanks to Donald Trump.
Zampolli said he introduced Donald and Melania, which Melania confirmed again on Thursday. Zampolli’s name appears several times in the Epstein files, and he did business with him.
Zampolli, according to The New York Times, had Ungaro detained by ICE while she was in jail for alleged workplace fraud to win a custody battle for their teenage son. Ungaro, who is Brazilian, was then deported.
Early Thursday morning, Ungaro addressed Melania on X: “I will tear down your corrupt system, even if it’s the last thing I do in my life. I will go all the way—I am not afraid. Maybe you should be afraid of what I know… of who you are, and who your husband is.”
In another post minutes earlier, Ungaro said she would “take legal action against you and your pedophile husband.”
Welch reacted: “I don’t know if that Amanda Ungaro thing has legs, but I know this, Joanna... It takes a lot to shock me. I’m pretty shockproof. I have been so shocked at each and every individual drop of the Epstein files. Everything that has come out has been so shocking.”
Melania did not respond to reporters who asked why she chose to speak up now. Her top adviser, Marc Beckman, did not directly answer that either, saying that the first lady just wanted to clear her name.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House and Beckman’s advertising agency, DMA United, for comment.
“Like, think about it all day long: lies and innuendos are coming through the media about the first lady, and she just wanted to set the record straight,” Beckman told Fox News. “If she can’t stick up for herself, if she can’t defend herself and make sure that her reputation is impeccable, who will do it? Nobody’s done it to date. All of this has been politicized. It’s been dragged through the media, and she’s ready to fight. She’s fought for herself.”
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