On a bustling night in 1998 at a New York Fashion Week party, Paolo Zampolli played matchmaker.
The Italian modeling agent had discovered a Slovenian model named Melania Knauss, recruited her to New York, and introduced her to his friend, Donald Trump.
At the time, Zampolli was operating at the intersection of fashion, wealth, and Manhattan nightlife—a world in which Trump was a regular fixture.
“We both liked beautiful things,” he told the New York Times in an interview a decade ago.
It’s Zampolli’s position in that elite social ecosystem that has now drawn him into a separate, more controversial narrative involving the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The renewed scrutiny comes as Melania Trump moved this week to publicly denounce “lies” linking her to Epstein. But the connective tissue between those worlds—fashion, power, and proximity—runs through Zampolli.
In the early 2000s, Zampolli and Epstein discussed buying a modeling agency together. Later, Zampolli was also named a partner in the now-defunct ocean charity founded by Ghislaine Maxwell, TerraMar Project.
But in a phone interview with the Daily Beast, Zampolli, who now serves as special envoy for Donald Trump, described his relationship with Epstein as one of necessity.
“For me, Jeffrey Epstein was a financial partner of Victoria’s Secret. I had to deal with him,” he said, citing the American lingerie business then run by another Epstein associate, Les Wexner.
“We never get along, thank God. But I had to have a very cordial relationship.”
He also doubled down on Melania’s statement on Thursday, in which the first lady rejected suggestions that Epstein introduced her to Trump.
“Even without an attorney, I’m volunteering to go to Congress to testify about this, because we have seen enough nonsense,” he said, recalling that he was the one who played Cupid.
“I said: ‘Melania meet Donald, Donald meet Melania,’ and then I left the table because I had 300 guests.”
Zampolli is now the Trump administration’s special envoy for global partnerships and a member of the Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees, two roles that keep him in striking distance of power.
Earlier this week, dressed in a dark suit and red tie, he sat alongside Vice President JD Vance in Hungary as they sought to prop up the election prospects of far-right leader Viktor Orban.
The walls of his D.C. home are said to be filled with pictures of him and the president. And his Instagram account is peppered with pictures of Trump’s inner sanctum, from cabinet officials and FIFA bosses, to Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles and members of the Trump family.
The former ambassador has never been accused of wrongdoing in relation to the convicted sex trafficker or his accomplice.
But like many others, his name appears several times in the millions of Epstein documents recently released by the Justice Department.
One document from 2020 contains an FBI interview with an alleged Epstein victim, who used to be one of the models at his agency.
Another involves Epstein warning associate Sultan Bin Salayam to “be careful” of Zampolli, claiming he is “trouble” and “sells stories to the press.”
And another file contains a 2003 New York Post article listing “the city’s most eligible guys,” including Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, actor Ethan Hawke, talk show host Jimmy Fallon, and Zampolli, then 33.
“The Italian owner of ID Models can usually be found sitting in a corner banquette of whatever club just opened, surrounded by a bevy of beauties,” it says.
And then there is Amanda Ungaro, a Brazilian model who had a long relationship with Zampolli and has emerged as an unpredictable figure in the saga.
As Melania Trump stood in the White House Cross Hall on Thursday, a series of posts from a woman purporting to be Ungaro began racking up countless posts online.
The posts were direct replies to Melania’s archived first lady account, claiming to know her and threatening to “expose everything that I know.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Ungaro through an intermediary, but she has yet to comment. It is not clear if the profile is authentic or what exactly would be exposed, but the posts have nonetheless sparked questions.
Ungaro was 17 when she boarded a 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.
“There were about 30 girls on the plane. I found it very strange,” the now 41-year-old told O Globo in a recent interview. “They looked more like students than models—beautiful and very young, but not with a model profile.”
Ungaro recently made headlines, accusing Zampolli, the father of her 16-year-old son, of using his influence in Washington to trigger her arrest by U.S. immigration authorities amid an ongoing custody dispute.
However, he strongly rejected this, as did the Department of Homeland Security.
“My ex is a criminal and a psychopath. She was arrested. She was illegal,” Zampolli told the Daily Beast.
“But for her to now try to get the fame and go after our marvelous first lady of the United States of America? I don’t even think the first lady ever spoke to her in maybe 10 years, maximum 13 years. It’s mind-boggling.”
As for suggestions that his fraught relationship with his ex had prompted the first lady’s statement?
“She is the first lady of the United States,” he said. “Do you think she cares about my ex?”
