Former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) admitted to having a sexual affair with her past bodyguard in a new motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the guard’s ex-wife last year.
The extramarital romantic relationship started in May 2024 while Sinema served in Congress, and bodyguard Matthew Ammel was still married. The Ammels separated five months later.
In September, Heather Ammel filed a complaint in a North Carolina county court to seek damages under the state’s “alienation of affection” statute. It permits litigation against a third party if the plaintiff’s relationship with their spouse was purposefully “alienated and destroyed” by said party.
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In January, lawyers for Ammel’s ex-wife requested that the case be heard in federal court rather than the state court, because the dispute involves a former member of Congress. The lawsuit is now before the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina for consideration.
Sinema is now trying to dismiss the complaint, claiming that the relationship occurred “exclusively outside of North Carolina” and therefore the state’s law did not have jurisdiction.
But Heather Ammel disputes that claim.
“Plaintiff grounds her assertion of jurisdiction on romantic telephone calls and electronic messages she alleges Defendant initiated with Mr. Ammel while he was in North Carolina. The evidence, however, refutes her allegations,” Sinema’s attorney Steven Epstein wrote in the 23-page motion.
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“During the relevant time period, Mr. Ammel was traveling outside of North Carolina for at least three different jobs all but a few days each month,” he stated. “Defendant documents each telephone call and email communication she had with him—none of which occurred while he was in North Carolina.”
In that view, Sinema and Ammel allegedly did not send “romantic Signal messages” in North Carolina. However, there was one romantic message transmitted between the two in the state after the bodyguard found a new home in October 2024. His then-wife told him to leave their house.
Sinema’s lawyer argues that one example “did not give rise to Plaintiff’s cause of action for alienation of affection and, therefore, cannot establish personal jurisdiction over Defendant.”
“Because Defendant’s conduct related to her romantic relationship with Mr. Ammel does not connect her to North Carolina in a meaningful way, jurisdiction over her in this action does not comport with due process,” the court filing reads.
Furthermore, the defense argues that Sinema’s text message, sent from either Paris or Utah in October 2024, had no “bearing on the destruction of marital love and affection” between the Ammels.
Because they were already planning to file for divorce by that point, per the motion, there is “no room for argument that the marriage still had a heartbeat at the moment he received Defendant’s message.”
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As a result of those reasons, the defendant wants to dismiss the lawsuit.
Two months before starting the affair, Sinema decided to leave the Senate at the end of her sole term in 2024. The former senator now serves as a senior adviser for Hogan Lovells, a legal and lobbying firm based in Washington, D.C.
