Paolo Zampolli, the Italian-born former modeling agent who serves as President Donald Trump's special envoy for global partnerships, is facing allegations that he drugged and raped a woman at his Manhattan townhouse in October 2023. The accusation comes in a civil lawsuit filed by 33-year-old model and tech entrepreneur Victoria Drake, who says she lost consciousness after Zampolli offered her a drink and was later sexually assaulted while unconscious or only briefly aware of what was happening to her.
Drake's complaint, filed September 3 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York under case number 1:26-cv-7582, was assigned to U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams and explicitly invokes claims under New York City's Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act, according to Inner City Press. The 56-year-old Zampolli, who has long described himself as the man who introduced a young Donald Trump to future first lady Melania Trump, denies the allegations entirely, according to Newsweek.
A Chance Encounter That Turned Dark, Suit Alleges
According to the lawsuit, as reported by Newsweek, Zampolli approached Drake at Zero Bond in Manhattan on October 5, 2023, where the two recognized each other from Mar-a-Lago and bonded over a shared admiration for Trump. Zampolli invited Drake and a friend back to his townhouse for a nightcap that night, and the complaint states she left without incident around 2:30 a.m. He invited her back the next morning, telling her in a message, “I want to get to know you,” and the station's report notes he later called her around 1:45 a.m. on October 7 to invite her to a get-together he said would include MIT and Harvard graduates.
Drake arrived at Zampolli's home at roughly 3 a.m. believing it would be a good networking opportunity, per the complaint. Instead, the suit alleges Zampolli offered her a drink, after which she lost consciousness. The last thing she recalls, according to the filing, is sitting on his living-room couch and watching him consume what the complaint describes as copious amounts of cocaine before she alleges he sexually assaulted her — contact she says she neither consented to nor was capable of consenting to.
Medical Exam, Police Report Followed Days Later
Drake filed a report with the New York Police Department on October 8, 2023, and underwent both a drug-facilitated sexual assault examination and a sexual assault forensic examination at a New York hospital that same day, the complaint states. She reported bruising on her left leg and hips and was prescribed medication to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, according to the same filing cited by Newsweek.
Zampolli has pushed back forcefully. He filed a criminal complaint against Drake in Rome in April 2026 alleging she tried to extort him, and he has said her civil suit should be handled alongside that criminal complaint, per Newsweek's reporting. An initial trial conference in the federal case is scheduled for November 6.
A Pattern of Aggressive Legal Counterattacks
The Rome complaint is not Zampolli's only international legal maneuver. In April and May 2026, he filed criminal defamation complaints and a 5 million euro civil damage claim in Italy against state broadcaster Rai and its investigative program Report over broadcasts detailing sexual assault allegations and financial controversies against him, according to La Sicilia.
Zampolli has long touted his role connecting the Trumps. He founded ID Model Management in Manhattan in the mid-1990s, where he sponsored Melania Knauss's U.S. work visa in 1996 and provided her housing before introducing her to Donald Trump at a 1998 New York Fashion Week party at the Kit Kat Club, according to The American Prospect. Unsealed FBI interview records from July 2019 also show a witness told federal agents that Zampolli attempted to purchase Elite Model Management alongside Jeffrey Epstein, though Zampolli offered in early 2026 to testify before Congress that Epstein did not introduce Donald and Melania Trump, per the same outlet.
Envoy Role and Prior Presidential Ties
Trump appointed Zampolli as U.S. Special Envoy for Global Partnerships in March 2025. He has been involved in negotiations over mineral and airplane deals with Uzbekistan, according to Wikipedia. In 2020, Trump had appointed Zampolli to the board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, as detailed by The Daily Beast.
Drake herself first entered Trump's social orbit in 2019 while dating private equity manager Ross Chaifetz, whose family had purchased a $9.4 million Trump Tower Chicago condominium in 2018, which led to her attending dozens of private functions and Mar-a-Lago events before the alleged 2023 assault, according to a report from Substack newsletter The Punch Up.
Other Controversies Involving Zampolli's Inner Circle
Drake's lawsuit lands amid other disputes swirling around Zampolli. His former partner, Amanda Ungaro, a former Brazilian model who was recruited to the U.S. at age 17 on Jeffrey Epstein's private plane and later served as a Grenadian diplomat, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and deported to Brazil in October 2025 following a bitter custody dispute with Zampolli, the Daily Beast reported. During an April 2026 interview with Italian broadcaster Rai regarding Ungaro, Zampolli publicly claimed that Brazilian women are “programmed to cause trouble,” while U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials denied that political influence played any role in her deportation, according to Folha de S.Paulo.
Before his U.S. government appointment, Zampolli held roles representing Dominica at the United Nations beginning in 2011. As the federal case against him moves toward its November 6 trial conference, the story remains developing, with Zampolli maintaining his denial and pursuing his own criminal complaint against Drake in Rome.
