Melania Epstein DENIAL BACKFIRES as Insider SPEAKS OUT?!?

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Welcome to the Court of History. I'm Sydney Blumenthal. I'm here with my co-host, uh, Sean Wentz. This is part two of our conversation with Nina Burley, investigative reporter, uh, author, historian, uh, who for years has delved deeply into the Jeffrey Epstein, Glenn Maxwell, Donald Trump scandal and cases. Um, she was the executive producer of a three-part documentary about it. She's the author of the Trump Women. She's former national correspondent for Newsweek and covered the White House in the 90s for Time magazine. Her Substack, American Freak Show, covers the Trump dystopia.

[00:00:42]In part one, we discussed Todd Blanch, the acting attorney general. And now in part two, Sean, let us discuss the can of worms that Melania Trump opened up with her unprompted press conference in which she said, and I quote, "I 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. To be clear, I never had a relationship with Epstein or his accomplice Maxwell.

[00:01:25]>> Well, what's why is she so scared? I mean, that's the only question I have. I mean, why would she do such a thing? The Epstein files have been off. He's been running. He's blown up the Middle East in order to avoid the Epstein files. And here is Melania Trump coming out in the middle of nowhere saying, "I had nothing to do with it in the way that you described." Um, something's something's bugging her. She knows that something's coming. Obviously, something must be coming or she wouldn't have done this.

[00:01:49]She's scared. As as as as Scaramucci said the other day, these people are essentially about self-preservation at all costs all of the time. every moment of the day they're thinking about how can I avoid getting nailed and and and and so this is you know she's coming out obviously think she's going to get nailed who's going to do it where is it about that's not altogether clear but but maybe it is getting moved >> yeah it's a kind of reverse Joe Balace you know in instead of singing she's clamming up it's it's like the scene in the Godfather with you know Frankie five angels pantangeli >> yeah I know of no mafia you know, I don't know. I never heard of it. Um, welcome, Nina. Um, I think you might have something to say about Melania saying, "I never been friends with Epstein." Are there any other individuals that refute that that might have prompted Melania to say this?

[00:02:48]>> Yeah. Well, I mean, just as preface, I want to say in the reading the files, the Epstein files, and understanding the the the breadth and depth of his uh Eastern European woman trafficking operation in this period when Melania arrived also in New York, it had occurred to me on occasion that it's possible that she was in fact more vulnerable than her husband in this in these revelations, partly because Trump's predatoriness towards women is already baked in. his people are fine as long as it's even if a 13-year-old I mean if they had a video of him raping a 13 maybe but basically you're not going to get him on that I don't think but she's vulnerable and there's a weak link she's the weak link in the coverup and the there's a weak link that Melania is the weak link in the coverup and so is her agent Paulo Zoli who in the you know who's now Trump's um you know Trump like the Godfather keeps the people who know the most about him he you know very very close and this guy is as close as you can get. I mean Melania is saying you know so anyway who what was she responding to? She was responding to Paulo Zoli's wife ex-wife it's not clear that they were married or not. I think they were but he denies it. uh was a model that he brought in when she into this country under circumstances of the the way that he also brought Melania into this country which was sketchy visa situation. He brought this woman in, Amanda Angaro from Brazil, a willowy beauty when she was 17 years old and became her her her consort for 20 years and they have a child together. And of course, a couple years ago, it breaks up and they start fighting over the child and she gets remarried or has a boyfriend down in Florida. And Paulo Zampoli hears that she has some legal trouble down there. So, he picks up the phone and calls ICE and has her ICE goes and gets her because he knows what her visa situation is, which is it's she's not a citizen yet. He he had they they deport her. They've put her in a concentration camp or something for three months.

[00:05:06]>> And they have a they have a child together.

[00:05:10]>> They have a child together. This is all about child custody. If you go on Paulo Zampoli's ex Twitter account, you can see him constantly using the kid as like, you know, me Javanni and I went to meet the Pope and Javanni and I just went to the White House. And so the kid's 15. He's not going to see his mother. She's been banished back to Brazil and she's fulminating and she's she'd been sat there with nothing, the clothes on her back or prison garb. And uh and this is a woman who sat at the Trump table at both of the inaugurations, who spent Christmases and New Years and holidays and spent, you know, knew Melania's Slovenian family, hung out with them 20 years, and she's now living down there and can't even get her kid back. So, she apparently tried to call Melania and say, "Can you please help me?" Melania, according to Amanda, who we have now communicated with, and you'll see it on our Substack later today, um, and on Courier News uh, Substack, we will uh, we'll be revealing all that that she's told us. Um, but she basically Melania just didn't give her the time a day. And so she started threatening her and she gave an interview to the Brazilian news and then she gave an interview to a Spanish newspaper. And I believe in the Spanish newspaper, El Pis, she did talk to them about Melania before this Melania statement came. And I think El Pais called the White House.

[00:06:41]There's nothing in the public piece that is has Melania in it. But according to Amanda, she talked to them about Melania. So I think that phone call from the media instigated the mysterious six minute statement, which by the way, totally written by lawyers. that is not she can't pronounce some of those words. You can hear her mispronouncing words and she's stumbling over the words and if you read them closely it is 100% legal.

[00:07:11]It's a legal threat to whoever is going to speak out and >> and that person is Amanda >> and that person is Amanda and Amanda uh is you know it's basically Paulo Zampoli the weak link he knows everything about this demom that out of which they come he was a participant in it with John Luke Brunell he was in business with Epstein according to Amanda which we are going to ask him to respond >> it's well known that let's explain who Paul Zampali is >> he was he was um sort of at the lowest level of the modeling industry, a hangar on um uh an heir to a an Italian toy fortune uh and uh set up his own modeling company uh bringing in not not models, not fashion models, but model u >> models >> on uh and not on work visas to begin with, but on um uh tourist visas like Melania. Uh she came into the country illegally. If if Steven Miller's rules were applied to her, she would be deported today. Um and uh Zali uh was uh a close associate of Donald Trump's. He was a close associate of Jean Luke Brunell who died in a Paris prison cell and hanged himself charged with rape and human trafficking and a close associate of Jeffrey Epstein with whom he was a business partner trying to buy a modeling firm among other things. Um, I just want to read some of the deleted uh uh messages that Amanda Angaro has posted um threatening Melania Trump. Um, and then get you to comment and tell us a little bit more. Nina, >> these are posted where, Sydney, where did she post these?

[00:09:06]>> She posted these on X and they have been deleted, but they were captured. One says, "I have nothing left to lose in my life. I will tear down the entire system. Be careful with me, bitch." That is directed to Melania. Then she goes on in another one and she says, "I will tear down your corrupt system. Even if it's the last thing I do in my life, I will go all the way. I am not afraid.

[00:09:33]Maybe you should be afraid of what I know of who you are and who your husband is.

[00:09:41]And there are more.

[00:09:43]So Nina, what does Amanda know and when did she know it?

[00:09:50]>> Well, she arrived here after Melania. So Melania had been here for a while. She's younger than Melania by about five or 10 years. And uh but they but but her husband was already inshed with Melania and with Trump when she got here. And what does she know? She knows according to her, she claims she claimed to me again today and we're going to publish the interview that um quote Melania uh quote you um Paulo did not introduce Melania to Donald Trump and everybody knows it.

[00:10:26]That's one of her statements to us. Um >> and Paulo must have she must have learned that either from Paulo or Melania herself.

[00:10:35]>> I don't know. We we haven't been able to actually. This is a written interview process. She's ve she's very um ky and scared. She she claims that Zoli is threatening her with constant phone calls night and day and offering money.

[00:10:52]Um you know he's under a lot of pressure because there's also a young woman who has put her name behind a rape allegation, a roofy rape allegation that she took to the NYPD >> involving Zampoli. the Zampoli as the perp and and she took it to the NYPD and uh apparently he skated from it because he has diplomatic or he has this diplomatic passport that he got from uh a being a representative of of this island of Dominica to the UN which is kind of a you know this little island that needs a fixer in New York. So they've got and he talked them into being you know I'm the guy who can help you and I and so they have had he been on that passport for quite a while. So there's some kind of diplomat I mean the whole you know the whole sort of Zoli story if you take it together like what he's managed to do with this woman moving using ICE to send her down there and then this this immunity thing which again the the rape has been reported is all over Substack and the and the accuser is putting her name behind it so she's not even like hiding um their documents and then you see him in Islamabading standing next to JD Vance at these negotiations. He's picture he's he's at that level of closeness to Donald Trump that he's he's engaging in these international um discussions and and you look at and taken together the level of impunity that's going on here is just beyond belief. like you can't it it it just defies language and and so you know here's here's where we are and and you know people like this are I mean and and Amanda did also give us some very disgusting details about his personal behavior towards her and towards other women which will be in the article later today. Um, so not a friend to women, um, but certainly a friend to to Donald. And he comes out again to say to say this again, he comes out of the demanded in which Melania encounters Donald Trump for the first time and becomes his consort.

[00:13:14]>> Yeah. So we should say just as some background about Paulo Zali, he was Melania's modeling agent. He claims to have uh introduced her to Trump. Others say that's untrue, including Amanda.

[00:13:31]Um Paulo is uh elevated by Trump to the board of the Kennedy Center, which will soon be defunct. He has been appointed a special envoy and travels around the world making business deals.

[00:13:47]Um uh he is profiled in the Financial Times this week as saying $20 billion in 20 minutes for a deal um um >> for Boeing >> for Boeing. Um uh we don't know the nature of these deals uh or what he's really doing or >> or whether he gets binders fee.

[00:14:10]>> Yeah.

[00:14:12]>> Said anything either and Boeing says nothing. So we don't know. There is a lack of oversight to say the least in all of this. And he has sent his common law wife um to prison and then deported her and separated her from her child.

[00:14:29]And she knows a great deal uh having been part of the intimate uh Trump um social circle and been very close to Melania.

[00:14:41]Does that seem like a fair summary? That is a perfect summary, Sydney.

[00:14:46]>> Yeah. So, um Melania um then said something about the Epstein victims as well. She said that um they should give public testimony. That seemed to me to be a way to um cover herself on the issue because um their depositions are being suppressed by the Department of Justice by Todd Blanch now, the acting attorney general um in the three million uh documents that he's suppressing. Uh that and the depositions with other names have not been made public. Um, but she somehow wants them to come forward publicly to subject themselves to humiliation.

[00:15:40]>> Well, I mean, my instinct also was the same as yours. It's it's a sop to the to the women or, you know, to the to look like she's a sister, you know, in the sisterhood or something. when in fact the problem with that is it's not up to the women to get accountability for what's happened here. It's up to the law of the United States and the Justice Department and the prosecutors and the and the government. It's not their job to prosecute and to get up in front of the public and and say state their claims. the the government knows what happened and other countries governments and legal systems are responding and ours is not >> and but this leads to a wholly different angle though on the Todd Blanch story it seems to me because people have been covering it as Todd Blanch she didn't do enough retribution Pam Bondi she he well he wanted somebody to go after somebody after his people and she just didn't come through and she wasn't so great on the Epstein files etc now there's a whole other angle to this, is there not?

[00:16:47]I mean, that now there's this new threat that's coming and he really wants to have somebody like Todd Lanch, not a semicompetent like Pam Bondi to help him on this front, you know, that that he's got to stop this from happening because it's not going to blow up Melania, but Alani, as you said in your what you were saying before and your in your Substack, Melania is the weak link in the whole business and if she goes down, the whole thing goes down. But now he's got to try to prevent this from coming out. And Todd Blanch would be the person to do that, too. Just a coincidence. And maybe it's just a coincidence, but but it seems to me as if it fits very very nicely.

[00:17:23]>> Yeah, I hadn't thought about that. The timing certainly is um >> you know, it's there. I mean, history is never quite so so neat and simple, but but it is something that I've noticed as we've been talking about this. It's it's it's hard to ignore.

[00:17:38]Well, to follow up what Sean said at the end of part one of our conversation in which he said asked you, Nina, what questions the Congress should ask um Todd Blanch?

[00:17:55]The question now is what should the House Oversight Committee dealing with the Epstein files do about um this whole Melania, Paulo Zali, Amanda Angaro situation? It seems to me that Zali and Angaro and Melania have not been questioned.

[00:18:20]>> Well, I mean certainly they have not been questioned. um you know but this is an oversight committee that would call in Hillary Clinton but not Melania who actually knew Epstein so that with that but I you know both Zoli and Amanda Angoro have gone on the record at least she just did today and I know Zoli's on the record saying call me in I want to talk to the oversight committee I'll tell you everything I know so uh yeah they they can be brought in Zoli can tell his side of the story whether it's true or not you can decide and Amanda may get get her chance to say what she wants to say. Um I doubt very much that they'll be able to drag Melania in there. Um but I don't know it clearly the um the administration is happy to blow up subpoenas from Congress. So, >> well, let me just say that um during the uh Clinton administration, Ken Starr did not hesitate to issue a subpoena to first lady Hillary Clinton and summon her before grand juries >> and she went well and testified. She was had there was no wrongdoing. There is no grand jury >> although she was accused of it by Ken Star who was obsessed with her. But um in in there is nothing that would prohibit um Melania Trump from testifying nor do these matters necessarily have anything to do with Donald Trump's presidential official duties. This is about the Epstein files. Uh yeah, I mean but the difference is Sydney that you know a grand jury is a different subpoena than a congressional subpoena.

[00:20:09]>> I understand congressional subpoenas are blown off all the time. I mean the Bush W administration blew off the subpoenas to explain the Iraq war to Patrick Ley and they ran out the clock. They didn't they didn't they just didn't bother at all. And you know Bannon blows off a subpoena. I mean, he did end up having to do jail time, but he's back.

[00:20:33]>> Yeah. Well, let's um we will watch what happens now. But um I think we've torn the cover off the mysterious Melania statement and we've seen what's underneath it. And there we've lifted the rock. There are a lot of worms and insects crawling around here that need to be examined.

[00:21:00]So, thank you for that. Um, Nina Burley.

[00:21:04]Uh, and, uh, on behalf of my co-host, Sean Walens, this session of the Court of History is adjourned. Thank you.

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