Newly filed court records show former Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema testified she repeatedly had sex with her then-married security guard while serving in office. His ex-wife is suing her under North Carolina's alienation-of-affection law.
Former Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema testified under oath that she repeatedly had sex with her married security guard while serving in the Senate, according to newly filed federal court records. The Democrat-turned-independent, who left office at the beginning of last year, detailed a string of encounters with Matthew Ammel spanning several states and the nation's capital. The revelations emerged in a July 31 deposition filed this week in a North Carolina lawsuit brought by Ammel's ex-wife.
Heather Ammel is suing Sinema under the state's alienation-of-affection law, a rarely used statute that lets a spouse seek damages from anyone who interferes with a marriage. She accuses the former senator of breaking up her 14-year marriage to Matthew Ammel, a retired Army veteran who joined Sinema's security detail in 2022.
Sinema, who is unmarried, said the relationship turned physical around Memorial Day 2024. She described the first encounter at an Airbnb in Napa, California, saying, "We were outside. Matt kissed me. We went inside and had sex." The group was staying with her friends Penny and Grant Croissant along with another member of her security detail.
Their next tryst came in June 2024, when Sinema attended the wedding of CNN anchor Jessica Dean in New York City. The two had separate hotel rooms but were intimate in Sinema's room, she testified. In mid-July, they had sex at her Washington, D.C., apartment after she took a red-eye flight from the West Coast.
In mid-August, the pair traveled to Aspen, Colorado, for what Sinema called a fundraising trip, where they were intimate again. She could not recall a late-September encounter in Washington, though Ammel confirmed it in his own deposition. The affair continued into October 2024, when the two had sex at Sinema's home in Phoenix.
Sinema acknowledged she knew Ammel was married and had three children throughout the encounters.
Heather Ammel filed the lawsuit after discovering the relationship, which she says destroyed her marriage. The Ammels separated on Nov. 1, 2024, and their divorce was finalized in March 2026, according to court records. The complaint describes Sinema's conduct as "intentional and malicious interference" and seeks damages for the breakup.
The lawsuit also alleges Sinema sent suggestive messages over the encrypted Signal app, including one in which she wrote, "I keep waking up during my sleep and reaching over for your arms to hold me." Prior filings in the case claimed Sinema suggested Ammel bring MDMA on a work trip, paid for luxury outings, and later placed him on her Senate staff as a defense and national security fellow while he continued serving as her bodyguard.
Sinema's legal team moved the case from state court to federal court and is seeking dismissal, arguing the relationship occurred exclusively outside North Carolina. Her lawyers contend the federal court lacks personal jurisdiction over her because she has no ties to the Tar Heel State, where the Ammels lived.
In the deposition, Sinema insisted her communications with Ammel -- by phone, email, and Signal -- took place outside North Carolina. Her attorney has argued that no jury would find a single message sent to the state had any impact on the marriage's destruction.
An evidentiary hearing in the case is scheduled for Aug. 19, per court documents. The case could test the reach of North Carolina's alienation-of-affection law, one of only a handful of states that still recognize the cause of action, and it threatens to keep Sinema in the legal spotlight long after her Senate career ended.
For now, the sworn testimony puts on the record a detailed account of an affair that began while Sinema was still representing Arizona, with the former lawmaker now fighting to avoid paying damages in what has become one of the more unusual political scandals of the year.
Newly filed court records show former Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema testified she repeatedly had sex with her then-married security guard while serving in office. His ex-wife is suing her under North Carolina's alienation-of-affection law.
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