The Epstein Files by Julie K. Brown

04/10/2026

The First Lady’s unprecedented public statement about Jeffrey Epstein yesterday raised a lot of questions about what, if anything, is about to be revealed about Donald and Melania Trump’s relationship with the late sex trafficker.

The Epstein case had quieted down in the wake of Trump’s decision to attack Iran — some critics allege that was one of Trump’s goals in launching a war in the first place — to cool the MAGA furor over DOJ’s inept release of the Epstein files.

Now it seems that plan, if true, has led to a Jack-In-The-Beanstalk effect — as in trading a cow for beans and climbing into danger without really thinking it through.

Because there is another story that I admit I missed when it ran in the New York Times a few weeks ago.

It appears that the Trump administration may have targeted Zampolli’s ex-girlfriend, a former Brazilian model named Amanda Ungaro, deporting her back to Brazil amid her custody battle with Zampolli over their teenage son.

As the NYT’s story notes: “The levers of the federal government can be pulled to settle a personal score.”

In this case, the score involved Paolo Zampolli, a former modeling agent who was appointed last year by Trump as special envoy for “global partnerships,” which allows him to travel the world to advance trade and other partnerships with the U.S.

Just days ago, he was in Hungary with Vice President Vance, supporting the re-election of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, an effort to publicly back the right-wing leader in the days running up to the election.

Zampolli, 56, was in Epstein’s orbit around the time that Trump met Melania in 1998. He was also friends with Epstein, as the two entertained a business deal over buying a modeling agency.

And Zampolli’s name is in the Epstein Files, with Epstein noting in one email that he was “trouble.”

Still all the drama surrounding Zampolli’s custody battle with his estranged girlfriend didn’t connect any dots, at least not for me, until the First Lady’s speech yesterday.

“The lies linking me to the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today,” the first lady said in a rare public statement. She went on to emphasize that she was not an Epstein victim and that Epstein did not introduce her to Trump.

Epstein had told people he introduced the couple, but the story had never been substantiated, and even so, it seems like a strange piece of lore to hang a six-minute public speech from the White House upon.

“Why now?” the reporters asked as the First Lady abruptly left the room.

Well, maybe it had to do with the man who says HE was the one who introduced Trump and Melania: Zampolli, who apparently used his Trump card to solicit a top official at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) to deport the mother of their child, according to the Times’ story.

The day before Melania’ White House statement, Ungaro took to social media with her anger over the deportation.