Epstein's Path Of Death And Destruction Goes All The Way To The White House And Far Beyond
Paolo Zampolli's Former Partner, Amanda Ungaro Explains Why She Thinks The First Lady Gave Her Impromptu Press Conference About Jeffrey Epstein
Hey Everyone,
The ghost of Jeffrey Epstein hovers over everything, still, seeming to tarnish and destroy everything in its path.
There’s tragic news from Norway (where I was two weeks ago). Edward Rød-Larsen, the 25-year-old son of Terje Rød-Larsen and Mona Juul, two Norwegian diplomats severely impacted by the Epstein files, died a couple days ago by suicide. The family lawyer appears to have blamed the media in a public statement.
My Norwegian friends tell me this is likely to become a massive debate in the coming days and weeks. Of course, the press reported hard on the couple’s dealings with Epstein (Rod-Larsen borrowed a considerable sum of money from Epstein without declaring it), and the government is investigating the couple, who are elderly.
So, should the media have done anything differently? The focus was not on the couple’s son.
But, as we know, Epstein’s wingspan was enormous. And the amount of collateral damage in this hideous story continues to pile up.
I was in DC over the weekend because of another horrendous suicide that is Epstein-related; I attended a powerful, moving memorial service for Virginia Roberts Giuffre, to mark the one year anniversary of her tragic death.
Virginia’s two brothers and their wives were present along with her publicist Dini Von Mueffling. So too were several of the Epstein survivors who paid homage to the one amongst them whose bravery was pivotal in bringing both Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell to justice.
Props to Rep. Jamie Raskin for his poignant oratory contextualizing Virginia’s life. A snippet:
The world is filled with injustice, especially towards women and girls, because the world is organized much more around power than it is around justice. The only thing that ever tips the scales towards justice, towards freedom, is the courage of brave leaders and the activism of thousands and thousands and hundreds of thousands and millions of people engaged in solidarity and movement forward demanding change. Virginia Roberts Giuffre was a leader. Generations to come will marvel at her toughness and celebrate her personal conviction and her moral determination to change American society and to change the world. And she’s now not just a hero to this movement, but she’s a hero to the ages who dwells with other great leaders and heroes of our history, like Dolores Huerta, like Rosa Parks, and like Frederick Douglass.
Beautifully put.
Where though, I wondered were other members of congress? It was a busy weekend in DC, as we all know. But surely this service ought to have taken priority on our politician’s calendars? I was disappointed not to see more of them there.
Yesterday, I spoke with someone else who has had her life turned upside down, she believes, because of Epstein.
Amanda Ungaro, a Brazilian ex-model and former longtime partner of Paolo Zampolli, A Trump-appointed UN ambassador, who once introduced Melania Knauss to Donald Trump, has experienced a living hell, in the wake of an acrimonious child custody battle with Zampolli.
Last year Ungaro and her new husband, a Brazilian doctor who runs a medical spa in Miami, were suddenly arrested, charged with practicing procedures like Botox and butt injections without a license. They pled not guilty.
Ungaro’s husband, who has a green card, was released on bail. Amanda, however was picked up from jail by ICE and detained for three and a half months before being deported to Brazil, all at the behest, she says of Zampolli, who is currently the Special Envoy of the President of the United States for Global Partnership. (Whatever that means).
Zampolli tells me that he didn’t push for ICE to deport Ungaro but that he did “check” in with a senior ICE official, David Venturella, to find out what was going on. “I was super concerned about the safety of my son because he was alone when those two were in jail,” he said. The New York Times recently confirmed that Zampolli spoke to Venturella, who made a phone call to ensure Ungaro was picked up at the jail by ICE before she could be released on bail. A source told the New York Times that Venturella said on the phone that the case was important “to someone close to the White House.”
When she was initially detained by ICE, Amanda says she of course reached out to Melania Trump through a friend in DC, to ask for her help. She points out she has known the First Lady for twenty years. They have spent Christmas, Easter and Thanksgivings together. The First Lady even emailed her son, Giovanni on his birthdays.
She was told that Melania was in London at the time and “looked shocked” but did nothing. The White House did not respond to my inquiry, but a spokesman said in a statement to the New York Times that the First Lady “has no knowledge of, nor involvement in, the personal affairs of Mr. Zampolli and Ms. Ungaro,” and that Mrs. Trump “has had no contact or engagement with” ICE.
Ungaro says she was devastated.
So, months later, on April 8th, Ungaro let loose on X, writing:
“I have nothing left to lose in my life. I will tear down the entire system - be careful with me bitch.”
Maybe you should be afraid of what I know….of who you are, and who your husband is.”
“I have known you for 20 years. You knew I was detained in ICE. You were present in my life - every year on my son’s birthday, even sending Secret Service and being the first to congratulate him, back in 2016.”
“Do you know what I think about you after 20 years???”
The posts went viral and she later deleted them, she says “because there was too much noise.” The next day, April 9, Melania Trump gave her bizarre impromptu, emotional press conference emphatically denying that she was an Epstein victim.
Even the pundits at Fox News were stumped as to the thought process behind it.
Ungaro’s theory is that the First Lady read her X posts and became scared. Ungaro says she believes it’s possible Zampolli did not in fact introduce Melania to Donald Trump, as he has claimed and that Jeffrey Epstein did. (Zampolli’s riposte: “I mean, after 30 years, you still guys ask me the same question, man.”)
Both couples have documented history that overlaps with Epstein. Epstein flew Ungaro to New York from Paris when she was just seventeen. When she landed in New York, she met Zampolli, then 32 and the owner of ID Models Management, with whom she signed. The two became romantically involved. (Zampolli says Ungaro was 19 when that happened.) Zampolli’s biggest client at the time was Victoria’s Secret, then owned by Leslie Wexner, Epstein’s main benefactor. Epstein and Zampolli reportedly considered buying a modeling agency together.
But it also emerged in the Epstein Files that Epstein was wary of Zampolli: In one 2011 email, Mr. Epstein warned an Emirati businessman: “Be careful, zampoli [Sic] is trouble. Lots.” He added, “He sells stories to the press.”
Zampolli’s relationship with the Trumps did not appear to hit similar speed bumps. Ungaro claims that Melania Trump grew even closer to Zampolli once her husband was elected President. During Trump’s first presidency, Zampolli was appointed to the board of the Kennedy Center. And In Trump’s second presidency, Zampolli was given his “special envoy” position.
He and Ungaro, who had stopped working under a diplomatic visa at the UN, moved with their son to Washington, DC. But their relationship was already souring, according to Ungaro. Zampolli was widely reported to be a lover of night-life and parties. At one point she says she told the First Lady of their difficulties. According to her, Mrs. Trump replied: “Men are all the same. Paolo doesn’t change”. [The First Lady’s Office did not respond to my request for a comment].
In 2022 Ungaro left Zampolli and drove to Miami. She says one of the contentious issues between them was her immigration status, and that Zampolli used this as leverage. According to a legal document they both signed, he was supposed to help her with a visa.
She began working with her new husband at his spa, and hired a lawyer to help her sue Zampolli for child custody so that their son, Giovanni, who had gone to boarding school, could live with her in Miami. As part of that case, she says, her lawyers sued Zampolli for back-dated child custody payments. According to Ungaro, a judge threatened to incarcerate Zampolli if he did not pay child custody he owed. [Zampolli says this claim is “unfounded” and a breach of confidentiality].
But two days before that deadline Ungaro and her husband were arrested. She paid $20,000 bond, but before she was released, ICE agents took her and put her in a facility for three and a half months, before flying her back to Brazil. Zampolli says that the arrest had nothing to do with him. “I was told that he [Ungaro’s husband] has a license for veterinary in Brazil, and he also was doing Botox in Brazil, which you don’t need to be licensed. But in the state of Florida to practice medicine…you need a license.”
Ungaro says she was treated inhumanely. “I was handcuffed everywhere: my feet, the waist, my hands like for 24 hours without food, without water,” she said.
“Melania knew it…. and she didn’t do anything,” she told me.
Now Ungaro says she is working on a book about what happened.
“I could say more, but now is not the right moment,” she says.
Her son Giovanni, 16, flew to Brazil to be with his mother after the deportation but is now back in the US, living with his father. Ungaro is not optimistic she will see her son anytime soon.
Like I said, the ghost of Jeffrey Epstein wreaks havoc everywhere you look.
There are some in this world who despoil everything in their path. Epstein was/is one, and Trump is, too. Now that we know Victoria's secret, when will the heads start to roll?
RIP Victoria Roberts Giuffre.
Looking forward to that book. Hopefully she paints them all with the same brush and hue. The difficulty will be “ if you knew how horrible these people all were why did you stay in the relationship and ultimately silent till now ?”