A former associate of Melania Trump has sensationally claimed the first lady was an “escort” for Jeffrey Epstein and met the president through the notorious sex offender.
Former Brazilian model Amanda Ungaro dropped the bombshell allegation on a taped recording, accusing her ex-partner, modeling agent-turned-presidential envoy Paolo Zampolli, of lying about introducing Melania and Donald Trump at a party in 1998.
The story of how Melania Knauss later met her future husband while working as one of Zampolli’s models in New York is now part of MAGA folklore.
It is also something the first lady referenced when she held a surprise press conference in April, mysteriously denouncing what she claimed were “mean-spirited and politically motivated lies” linking her to the late child sex trafficker.
But in her recording posted on X overnight, Ungaro, who has been locked in a bitter custody battle with Zampolli for months, disputes this version of events.
“Let’s tell the public you never was the one introducing Melania to Trump. It was Jeffrey Epstein, as she was escort of Jeffrey Epstein. That’s how she met Donald Trump,” Ungaro claims in the WhatsApp recording.
“And I know, because I was with you 20 years and you always told me it was not you—it was Jeffrey Epstein,” she added.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House and the first lady’s Office for comment. Zampolli, meanwhile, told the Daily Beast: “I think it is a disgrace that she dares to say this about our marvelous first lady.”
“I’m truly concerned for her health, and I think she truly needs some therapy,” the Trump ally said of his ex.
Zampolli is now a Special Envoy for Global Partnerships and a member of the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees.
Ungaro was 17 when she boarded Epstein’s private jet, the so-called “Lolita Express,” on a flight from Paris to New York in June 2002. She was accompanied by her then-agent, French modeling scout Jean-Luc Brunel, who was also a recruiter for Epstein.
The pair spent years moving in the same social circles as the Trumps and were photographed alongside Donald and Melania Trump at Mar-a-Lago events.
Ungaro also made headlines last year, accusing Zampolli of using his influence in Washington to trigger her arrest by U.S. immigration authorities amid an ongoing custody dispute.
Zampolli, however, strongly denies this, as does the Department of Homeland Security.
The latest claim, which was posted on Ungaro’s X account but has now been deleted, has once again put the Epstein saga under the spotlight, with Ungaro suggesting that Zampolli was “covering” for Melania—and vice versa—after he was given a position of power within the administration.
This directly contradicts statements the first lady made earlier this year, when she told reporters: “I am not Epstein’s victim. Epstein did not introduce me to Donald Trump. I met my husband, by chance, at a New York City party in 1998. This initial encounter with my husband is documented in detail in my book, MELANIA.”
“The first time I crossed paths with Epstein was in the year 2000, at an event Donald and I attended together. At the time, I had never met Epstein and had no knowledge of his criminal undertakings,” she told reporters in April.
It was not clear at the time what had prompted the first lady to make her statement, which even seemed to catch the president by surprise.
But around the same time, a series of posts from Ungaro began appearing online as direct replies to Melania’s archived first lady account, claiming to know her and threatening to “expose everything that I know.”
“She knows that I witnessed highly compromising interactions over the course of 20 years,” Ungaro said in an interview with the Courier in April, without providing details.
According to files released by the Justice Department, a one-time assistant to Epstein also told the FBI, effectively under penalty of perjury, that the pedophile introduced Trump and Melania.
Zampolli has nonetheless maintained for years that he was responsible after recruiting Melania to his New York agency.
“Even without an attorney, I’m volunteering to go to Congress to testify about this, because we have seen enough nonsense,” he told the Daily Beast in an earlier interview as he recalled playing Cupid.
“I said: ‘Melania meet Donald, Donald meet Melania,’ and then I left the table because I had 300 guests.”
The recording was first posted on the account of independent journalist and Substacker Anthony Andrews, who said he was asked to post it and tag Zampolli.
However, the post was taken down sometime on Monday, with Andrews later writing: “Unusual things continue to occur in the background. What’s out there is out there now, but I will continue to be a messenger and follow the requests being made of me.”
In reference to his post, Zampolli had earlier on Monday told the Daily Beast that “My lawyers are already on it and he’s gonna get a lawsuit.”
He later said in a post that most of the claims being pushed by Ungaro were AI-generated, to which Andrews replied: “This is a p---ing match you won’t win @AMBZAMPOLLI. I have plenty of content and I assure you it is not AI generated.”
