‘Jeffrey Epstein didn’t introduce Melania to Trump. I did’
Paolo Zampolli, a former model scout, offers to testify in Congress after the first lady’s surprise White House statement denying links to the late sex offender
Donald and Melania Trump with Paolo Zampolli at Mar-a-Lago in December 2016, after Trump’s first election victory
A Trump administration official and former model scout has offered to testify before Congress that it was he, not Jeffrey Epstein, who introduced Melania Knauss to Donald Trump.
Paolo Zampolli, appointed last year by the president to be special representative for global partnerships at the United Nations, said reports that the first couple were introduced by the late sex offender were “totally nonsense”.
“She has nothing to do with this criminal Epstein,” Zampolli, an Italian-American dual citizen, told Sky News on Friday. “I am willing to testify in front of Congress if I am asked and say the truth.”
The House oversight committee has subpoenaed a number of Epstein associates to appear before them to answer questions about what they knew of his sex-trafficking ring.
Melania Trump made a surprise statement on Thursday denying any knowledge of Epstein’s abuse, or that she was his victim.
The first lady’s on-camera remarks at the White House were not scheduled and marked an extraordinary intervention in a scandal that has long haunted her husband.
“The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today,” she said. “The individuals lying about me are devoid of ethical standards, humility and respect.”
Mr Trump told MSNow in an interview after her remarks that he did not “know anything about” the media conference.
The intervention also came on the eve of the anticipated publication of an interview that Zampolli’s former girlfriend Amanda Ungaro, a Brazilian model and former friend of Mrs Trump’s, gave to the Spanish newspaper El País. It is unclear if Ungaro discussed Epstein or Mrs Trump.
Ungaro has claimed Zampolli asked Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain her in the midst of a custody battle for their son. Zampolli denied this to The New York Times.
Amanda Ungaro with Zampolli in 2019BEN GABBE/Getty IMAGESThey posed with the Trumps for a photograph posted on Instagram
Mrs Trump’s team has said the true story of how she met Trump is featured in her 2024 memoir, Melania.
The Slovenian-born first lady has said that Zampolli, who was running the modelling agency that brought her to the United States and was a friend of Trump, then a New York real-estate mogul, introduced them at a party he was hosting at the Kit Kat Club during the city’s fashion week in 1998. She was 28 at the time and he was 52.
Zampolli ran ID Model Management at the time and was said to have planned to purchase Elite Model Management with Epstein but the deal never went through. Zampolli’s name appears several times in documents related to the Epstein investigation, though he is not accused of wrongdoing.
He told The New York Times last month that he did not have a close relationship with Epstein. “At least I was included, because if you’re not on the list, you’re a loser, right?” he said.
It was not clear why Mrs Trump decided to give the public statement, and she did not detail any specific allegations about her and the financier. The Trumps had previously been photographed with Epstein, but she said that she had met her husband independently two years before meeting Epstein.
“I’ve never been friends with Epstein. Donald and I were invited to the same parties as Epstein from time to time, since overlapping in social circles is common in New York City and Palm Beach,” Mrs Trump said on Thursday. “To be clear, I never had a relationship with Epstein or his accomplice, [Ghislaine] Maxwell.”
In one email included in the so-called Epstein files, released in late January, Melania is seen messaging with Maxwell, writing: “I know you are very busy flying all over the world. How was Palm Beach? I cannot wait to go down. Give me a call when you are back in NY. Have a great time!” She signs off “Love, Melania!”
In another document, an assistant to Epstein appears to tell the FBI that “Epstein had introduced Donald to Melania”, without elaborating.
Mrs Trump’s legal team threatened a $1 billion defamation suit against the author Michael Wolff, demanding a retraction and apology for statements alleging she was introduced to her husband by Epstein.
Wolff sued Mrs Trump last October, alleging the threat was designed to “harass, intimidate and punish” him for his reporting. Mrs Trump moved to dismiss, claiming improper service. The case is continuing.
The first lady’s White House address was not without precedent. In the run-up to the 2024 presidential election, she released a statement discussing her former modelling career in which she compared her nude photoshoots to the high-art depiction of the nude form in Michelangelo’s David and John Collier’s Lady Godiva.
Mrs Trump, who was discovered by a photographer in her hometown in Slovenia aged 16, posed nude for a French adult magazine in 1995, and then again on Trump’s private jet for British GQ in 2000. The latter photos resurfaced before the 2016 presidential election, but the media had not given so much as a fleeting reference to them since.