For years, Amanda Ungaro and Melania Trump moved in the same circles, attended the same Mar-a-Lago New Year’s parties, and sat at the same table with Donald Trump.
Now Ungaro, deported to Brazil in 2025 after what she claims was an ICE operation orchestrated by her ex-partner, is giving interviews from Rio de Janeiro, saying Melania knows exactly what she witnessed over two decades.
“Melania felt threatened, and while she did not threaten me directly, she knows that I witnessed highly compromising interactions over the course of 20 years,” Ungaro said in an interview published Saturday.
“She does not know the full extent of what I know – for I lived with Paolo for 20 years.” When asked if she would testify before the House Oversight Committee, her answer was immediate. “Absolutely.”
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The conduit connecting the two women is Paolo Zampolli, Ungaro’s former partner of nearly two decades and a friend of Trump’s who now serves as the administration’s Special Envoy for Global Partnerships, a position that appears to have been created specifically for him. Zampolli has claimed credit for introducing Melania to Donald Trump at a 1998 party in New York. Ungaro calls that a “false narrative” constructed as part of a “specific agreement,” the nature of which she says she does not fully know.
Zampolli’s name appears about a dozen times in the Justice Department’s Epstein files. The records show he was in Epstein’s orbit around the time Trump met Melania in 1998, and at one point the two discussed a business deal involving the purchase of a modeling agency.
Zampolli has denied any social or business relationship with Epstein. “I don’t know what the specific agreement was behind the creation of this narrative, but Paolo was an associate of Epstein, and they did business together,” Ungaro said.
Ungaro told the New York Times she was a 17-year-old model when she flew to New York on Epstein’s plane from Paris with her French agent in 2002. She said she never saw Epstein again and met Zampolli that same year, beginning a relationship that lasted nearly two decades.
She alleges that Zampolli, after their separation and custody dispute over their teenage son, contacted a senior ICE official to have her deported. The Times confirmed that Zampolli contacted ICE official David Venturella ahead of Ungaro’s arrest, though noted the deportation might have occurred regardless of his involvement. Zampolli denied requesting her detention.
Ungaro is scheduled to appear on Italian state broadcaster RAI’s investigative programme Report, where the host has described the upcoming interview as containing “explosive revelations at an international level.”
Melania’s office told the New York Times when Ungaro’s story first surfaced that the first lady “has no knowledge of, nor involvement in, the personal affairs of Mr. Zampolli and Ms. Ungaro.” Melania herself addressed Epstein in a surprise White House press conference on April 9, saying she was not a close friend and had no knowledge of his criminal activities when they met in 2000.
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
