Kyrsten Sinema, a former US senator, admitted in court papers to having a “romantic and intimate” relationship with a married man who was a member of her security detail during her final year in office, but argues that his ex-wife should not be able to sue her for it.
The admission of the multistate affair came in response to a lawsuit filed by Heather Ammel, who accused the former Arizona senator in federal court of breaking up her marriage under North Carolina’s so-called “homewrecker” law.
In court papers, filed March 12, Sinema asked a federal judge to dismiss the case, saying in sworn statements that she has no connection to North Carolina, where bodyguard Matthew Joseph Ammel resided with his wife and children. He noted that he was “intimately physically intimate” with Ammel in four states, as well as in Washington, DC, but not once in North Carolina.
Additionally, between early 2023 and November 1, 2024, Sinema says that “100%” of her phone calls and email communications with Ammel occurred when he was outside North Carolina, and were largely related to her work as part of her Senate security detail, which involved frequent travel.
He claims he didn’t know Ammel was living in North Carolina with her family until December 2023, more than a year after he started working in security for her. Sinema also maintained that she had no knowledge of Ammel’s “day-to-day” whereabouts unless it was related to travel as part of her security detail.
As part of the filing, Sinema detailed a half-dozen encounters in which she said she was “intimately physically intimate” with Ammel, beginning in late May 2024, in Sonoma, California. He said they had additional meetings in New York; Washington DC; Aspen, Colorado and Phoenix, Arizona.
According to Heather’s lawsuit, she had a “good and loving marriage” with her husband before Sinema interfered. She accused Sinema of pursuing Matthew despite knowing he was married.
Heather maintained that she discovered “romantic and lewd” messages exchanged between her husband and Sinema, including a photo of the then-senator wrapped in a towel.
In the lawsuit, Heather alleged that Sinema paid for psychedelic treatment for Matthew, a U.S. Army veteran who has battled post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse and traumatic brain injuries related to his military deployments.
Sinema denies ever sending a photo of herself “wrapped in a towel” and claims she “does not remember” sending “any messages” to Matthew suggesting he bring MDMA drugs on a work trip so she could “guide him through a psychedelic experience.”
Matthew received nearly $9,000 in October from Sinema’s former campaign committee, according to news outlet Notus, citing Federal Election Commission (FEC) documents. Other unusual campaign expenses include hotels in Saudi Arabia, wine and “gifts” from Taylor Swift’s official gift shop.
In Sinema’s motion to dismiss, she claims she joined the Ammel family, including her three children, at a Taylor Swift concert in Miami just days before the couple formally separated. The Ammels stayed during the trip in different hotel rooms.
North Carolina is one of the few states in the United States where spouses can sue a third party – often the “paramour” – for alienation of affection resulting from an affair. But Sinema says Heather’s lawsuit against her should be dismissed because the central issue of the case took place outside of North Carolina.
The case has brought renewed attention to Sinema, the Democrat-turned-independent who served one term in the Senate after flipping her seat in 2018 in a politically competitive state. She emerged as a key bipartisan negotiator but angered her Democratic colleagues by stonewalling some top legislative priorities when her party held the White House during Joe Biden’s presidency.
Since leaving the Senate, Sinema has continued to attract attention with her work on issues such as cryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence as a senior counsel at the legal and lobbying firm Hogan Lovells.
He has also openly advocated for psychedelic medicine and has spoken openly about his experience undergoing ibogaine treatment to prevent dementia.
Consolidating its shift to the right, the Washington Reporter recently announced that Sinema would be joining the conservative news outlet as a columnist, bringing an “insider’s look at some of the most consequential political debates.”
