Ambassador Paolo Zampolli, the Italian-American diplomat who claims credit for introducing Donald Trump to Melania Trump more than a quarter-century ago, said Thursday he is prepared to testify before Congress and bring as many as 50 witnesses to confirm his account of how the couple met.
The offer comes on the heels of First Lady Melania Trump's pointed White House statement addressing Jeffrey Epstein and denying long-circulating rumors that the convicted sex offender played any role in her introduction to the president. In a phone interview with the Daily Mail, Zampolli made clear he wants the record set straight, under oath if necessary.
The episode lays bare a pattern that conservative readers will recognize: a smear built on innuendo, kept alive by media repetition, and aimed squarely at the First Family. Zampolli's willingness to testify is a direct challenge to anyone still peddling the Epstein-introduction fiction.
Zampolli's account is specific. He says he introduced Donald Trump and Melania Trump at a New York Fashion Week party at the Kit Kat Club in September 1998. At the time, Zampolli was a modeling agent, not yet the diplomat he would later become as Trump's Special Envoy for Global Partnership.
In the Daily Mail interview, Zampolli did not hedge.
"I'm ready to testify in Congress, in front of Congress, to say who introduced the First Lady, and I'm ready to even bring another 50 witnesses to say they were present that night."
He added bluntly: "The whole world knows this. This is old news."
For anyone paying attention, it is old news. The Kit Kat Club introduction has been part of the public record for years. But that has not stopped outlets from floating the alternative theory, that Epstein somehow brokered the meeting, without evidence sufficient to support the claim.
The First Lady's office sent a press release to the media on Wednesday announcing she planned to make remarks, though it gave no hint of the subject. On Thursday, Melania Trump delivered a statement from the White House addressing the Epstein matter directly. She denied being "friends" with Epstein and said she was not a "victim" of him. She took no questions from reporters afterward.
President Trump himself told MSNOW he did not "know anything about" the First Lady's plans to address the subject, a detail that suggests she acted on her own initiative.
Marc Beckman, a senior adviser to the First Lady, explained the motivation in plain terms. He told the Daily Mail that "enough is enough" and "the lies must stop." That framing, a family tired of baseless insinuation, fits the facts far better than any conspiracy theory about Epstein matchmaking.
Zampolli did not pretend he had no contact with Epstein. He acknowledged it openly, noting that his name appears in the Epstein files. "I'm in the files, you know?" he told the Daily Mail. The New York Times confirmed Zampolli's name appeared in the files and reported that Epstein had at one point discussed buying a modeling agency with him.
A 2011 email attributed to Epstein struck a hostile tone toward Zampolli: "Be careful, [Zampolli] is trouble. Lots. He sells stories to the press."
Zampolli characterized the Trump-Epstein relationship as casual and unremarkable for the era. "They met randomly, they met socially, everybody knew Epstein," he said. That statement tracks with what has been publicly known for years: Epstein moved in elite New York social circles, and crossing paths with him at events did not make someone complicit in his crimes.
The broader Trump family has navigated persistent attempts to tie them to Epstein through guilt by association. Melania Trump has repeatedly pushed back on high-profile claims made about her, and this latest statement fits that pattern.
The Daily Mail interview also addressed a separate thread involving Amanda Ungaro, a Brazilian model and Zampolli's ex-girlfriend. The New York Times reported allegations that Ungaro had been deported, and Zampolli denied using his connections to the Trump administration to make that happen.
"At no time did I request any favors from my colleagues," Zampolli said. He stated that his inquiries were "solely aimed at understanding the situation" and that any advice he sought was "strictly in relation to my son's safety."
Ungaro herself has spoken to Brazilian outlet O Globo about flying on Epstein's private jet in 2002, when she was 17 years old. She described the experience as unsettling.
"All I wanted was to get off that plane. I knew something was wrong, I just didn't know what. At the time, it never crossed my mind that it could involve abuse."
Notably, Ungaro has not suggested that Epstein shared a close relationship with the Trumps. That distinction matters. Her account is about Epstein's predatory behavior, not about the First Family.
Zampolli dismissed suggestions that his personal history with Ungaro motivated the First Lady's statement. "There's no way. This is the First Lady of the United States. Do you think she cares about my ex?" he said.
Zampolli offered his own read on the First Lady's motivations, and it had nothing to do with personal drama or political calculation. He pointed to the victims.
"I'm sure she cares about the victims and everybody that has been a victim has a right to expose this animal."
He went further: "I honestly think, deep in her heart, she cares about the victims." He also noted plainly, "I know she's not a victim. We know that."
The ambassador spoke warmly of the First Lady. "I think the First Lady has the biggest heart in the world, she's a family woman, and she's our marvelous First Lady," he said. Those are the words of a longtime family friend, not someone trying to distance himself.
The First Lady's willingness to speak publicly, her growing comfort using her platform on her own terms, represents a shift from her typically reserved public posture. That she chose this subject, and chose to address it without advance notice to the president, says something about how seriously she takes the smear.
The Epstein saga continues to generate friction on Capitol Hill. An ongoing battle persists over whether former Attorney General Pam Bondi must sit for an Epstein-related deposition. The specifics of that dispute remain unclear, but the political stakes are obvious: Democrats have used the Epstein files as a weapon against anyone in Trump's orbit, regardless of whether the facts support the insinuation.
Zampolli's offer to testify under oath raises the bar. It is one thing to float rumors in newspaper columns and cable news segments. It is another to face a witness who says he was there, saw it happen, and can name 50 people who saw it too.
The Trump family has endured extraordinary public scrutiny of its private life, and the Epstein association has been among the most persistent and least substantiated lines of attack. Every member of the family has had to respond to it in one form or another.
Several questions remain open. The exact wording of Melania Trump's White House statement has not been fully reported. No specific congressional committee or forum has been identified for Zampolli's potential testimony. And the details of the Bondi deposition fight remain murky.
But the central factual question, who introduced Donald Trump to Melania Trump, has a man willing to answer it under penalty of perjury. That should count for something in a media environment where anonymous sourcing and suggestive framing have replaced verified fact.
When a witness steps forward and says "put me under oath," the people who built their narrative on whispers have a problem. And they should.
