EXCLUSIVE

Jessica Leeds -- the woman who claims Donald Trump groped her on a plane 35 years ago -- says Melania Trump is no different than Hillary Clinton ... defending husbands who do bad things.

Leeds tells TMZ, she feels for Melania, who's now in the hot seat for defending Donald in the wake of various allegations by women. Leeds says Melania's defense of her husband is no different than Hillary's defense of Bill Clinton.

Leeds says, "The wives are in a difficult position if they want to save their marriage," adding, "They'll make compromises and accept the good with the bad."

She also says, "I feel it's terrible Melania is being viewed as sympathetic when Donald is beating up on Hillary for doing the same with Bill."

As for Melania's comment that the allegations are suspicious because they're all surfacing just weeks before the election, Leeds repeated ... she was prompted to contact The New York Times after Trump denied ever actually doing the things he talked about with Billy Bush.

And she says, she never expected The Times to run her story because "it was 35 years ago and there was no way of fact checking."