A newly leaked audio recording and a series of FBI documents are intensifying scrutiny of First Lady Melania Trump’s public statements about her past, as former associates and official records directly contradict her narrative.
In April 2026, Melania Trump issued a rare public statement from the White House, categorically denying any ties to Jeffrey Epstein or his criminal network. “I was never a friend of Epstein, I am not one of his victims,” she stated, adding forcefully, “Epstein did not introduce me to Donald Trump”. She has maintained for years that she met the future president by chance in 1998 at a New York City party hosted by her then-modeling agent, Paolo Zampolli.
However, official FBI files from 2019, part of the millions of pages of Epstein-related documents released by the Department of Justice, tell a different story. A former Epstein assistant, who also worked as a model in the mid-2000s, gave sworn testimony to federal investigators in July 2019, stating unequivocally that “Epstein introduced Melania Trump to Donald Trump”. The witness, whose name was redacted, provided her testimony under a legal agreement that carries a penalty of up to five years in prison for making false statements. The FBI’s written record of this interview explicitly notes, after several redacted lines, “EPSTEIN introduced MELANIA TRUMP to DONALD TRUMP”.
Further fueling the controversy is a newly surfaced audio recording. Amanda Ungaro, a former Brazilian model who had a long-term relationship with Paolo Zampolli and once served as a U.N. ambassador during the first Trump administration, posted a now-deleted WhatsApp voice message on her X account. In the recording, Ungaro directly confronts Zampolli: “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”. She claims that over their 20-year relationship, Zampolli himself confirmed this version of events, stating, “you always told me it was not you—it was Jeffrey Epstein”.
Zampolli, a Trump appointee as a special envoy and a member of the Kennedy Center board, has strongly denied the allegations, calling them “vicious lies” and claiming the recording may be “AI-manipulated”. The White House has not yet formally responded to Ungaro’s specific claims.
The combination of a sworn FBI statement from an insider and a personal audio recording from a close associate directly contradicts the First Lady’s repeated denials regarding her connection to the infamous sex trafficker.
