Former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema admitted in court documents that during her final year in office she had a “romantic and intimate” relationship with a married man who served as her security guard, but argued his estranged wife should not sue her over it.
The admission of the interstate incident comes in response to a lawsuit filed by Heather Amell, who accused the former Arizona senator in federal court of destroying her marriage under North Carolina’s so-called “homewrecker” law.
In court documents filed on March 12, Sinema asked a federal judge to dismiss the case, saying in a sworn statement that she had no ties to North Carolina, where bodyguard Matthew Joseph Ammel lives with his wife and children. She noted that she was “physically intimate” with Amell in four states and in Washington, D.C., but not once in North Carolina.
Additionally, Sinema said “100 percent” of her phone and email communications with Amell from early 2023 through Nov. 1, 2024, occurred while Amell was away in North Carolina and were largely related to his job as part of Senate security, which involved frequent travel.
She said she didn’t know Amell was living with her family in North Carolina until December 2023, more than a year after he first worked security for her. Sinema also insisted she had no knowledge of Amell’s “day-to-day” whereabouts unless related to travel on her security detail.
As part of the document, Sinema detailed six encounters beginning in late May 2024 in Sonoma, California, in which she said she had “physically intimate contact” with Amell. She said they had more contacts in New York; Washington, D.C.; Aspen, Colorado, and Phoenix, Arizona.
According to Heather’s lawsuit, she and her husband had a “wonderful and loving marriage” before Sinema interfered. She accused Sinema of pursuing Matthew despite knowing he was married.
Heather insists she discovered “romantic and lewd” messages exchanged between her husband and Sinema, including a photo of the senator wrapped in a towel at the time.
In the lawsuit, Heather claims Sinema paid for psychedelic treatments for Matthew, a U.S. Army veteran who had struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse and traumatic brain injury related to military deployment.
Sinema denied ever sending a photo of her “wrapped in a towel” and said she “did not recall” sending “any message” to Matthew advising him to take ecstasy with him on a business trip so she could “guide him through a psychedelic experience”.
Matthew received nearly $9,000 from Sinema’s old campaign committee in October, news outlet Notus reported, citing Federal Election Commission (FEC) documents. Other unusual campaign spending included hotels in Saudi Arabia, wine and “gifts” from Taylor Swift’s official gift shop.
In Sinema’s motion to dismiss, she said she attended a Taylor Swift concert in Miami with the Amell family, including their three children, just days before the couple officially split. The Amells stayed in separate hotel rooms during the trip.
North Carolina is one of the few states in the country where a spouse can sue a third party (usually a “lover”) for alienation resulting from an extramarital affair. But Sinema said Heather’s lawsuit against her should be dismissed because the events at the heart of the case occurred outside of North Carolina.
The case has brought renewed attention to Sinema, a Democrat-turned-independent who served one term in the Senate after flipping her seat in 2018 in a politically competitive state. She became a key dealmaker for both parties, but angered her Democratic colleagues by blocking some of the most important legislative priorities when Democrats were in the White House during Joe Biden’s presidency.
After leaving the Senate, Sinema continued to draw attention for her work on issues such as cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence as a senior counsel at the legal and lobbying firm Hogan Lovells.
She has also been a public advocate for psychedelic drugs and has been outspoken about her experience receiving ibogaine as a treatment to prevent dementia.
The Washington Reporter recently announced that Sinema would join the conservative news outlet as a columnist, laying the groundwork for her shift to the right, bringing “an inside look at some of the most important policy debates.”
