On Thursday, First Lady Melania Trump surprised everyone by suddenly appearing before the cameras to issue a forceful denial that she had any close ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
“I am not Epstein’s victim,” the First Lady said. “Epstein did not introduce me to [President] Donald Trump.” She also denied any knowledge of or involvement in Epstein’s crimes. She also called on Congress to “act.”
“I call on Congress to provide the women who have been victimized by Epstein with a public hearing specifically centered around the survivors. Give these victims their opportunity to testify under oath in front of Congress,” she said.
The statement left a lot of people scratching their heads, mostly because the Epstein story had largely been out of the news in recent weeks, and Melania’s statement seemed likely to give it new legs.
BREAKING: “I have never had any knowledge of Epstein abuse of his victims. I was never involved in any capacity. I was not a participant, was never on Epstein’s plane and never visited his private island.” -First Lady Melania Trump pic.twitter.com/PPvpC9XFzg
— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 9, 2026
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There was much speculation on Thursday that the First Lady was trying to get ahead of some type of new reporting related to Epstein that deals with her specifically.
Some speculation online dealt with a New York Times report from last month, about Paolo Zampolli, a former modeling agent and Trump ally, and evidence that an ICE agent assisted him in a custody battle with the mother of his child, Amanda Ungaro. Ungaro, who is Brazilian, was later placed in ICE custody, after Zampolli allegedly told an ICE official that she was in the country illegally.
This story has legs.
(gift) https://t.co/XmVYDVPnDp— julie k. brown (@jkbjournalist) April 10, 2026
The Times story was illustrated with a photo of Donald and Melania Trump with Zampolli, at Mar-a-Lago in 2016. And the Times story states that it was Zampolli who first introduced Donald Trump to Melania; she had denied, on Thursday, that it was Epstein who did so.
Also, the Times story from March states that “in the city’s modeling scene, Mr. Zampolli also intersected with Jeffrey Epstein, the financier who would later be accused of sexually abusing hundreds of girls and young women. The men once discussed buying a modeling agency together, and Mr. Zampolli’s name appears several times in the millions of Epstein documents recently released by the Justice Department.” And the Times stated that Ungaro first arrived in New York on Epstein’s plane, although she told the newspaper that she “never saw Mr. Epstein again.”
The Times story, contrary to some viral social media posts, does not characterize Ungaro as an “Epstein victim.” And while an X account claiming to be Ungaro threatened the First Lady this week, it’s not clear if it is actually her.
At any rate, the story is so convoluted that it’s not clear if that specifically is what would drive Melania to make the statement.
Photo courtesy of an X screenshot.
