Former Senator Kyrsten Sinema confessed under oath to a sexual affair with her married security guard.
The bombshell revelation came from Sinema's own deposition testimony, now part of federal court filings that have blown the lid off a scandal involving the Arizona politician and her bodyguard Matthew Ammel. His ex-wife, Heather Ammel, according to reports has taken legal action against the former Democrat turned independent, alleging Sinema destroyed her 14-year marriage. The suit was brought in North Carolina utilizing the state's alienation-of-affection statute.
Sinema's attorneys fought hard to get the whole thing thrown out. They tried shifting the case to federal court, then argued it should be dismissed because the relationship took place outside North Carolina's borders. That maneuver clearly did not go as planned.
Here is where it gets truly wild. In a July 31, 2026 deposition conducted at a Raleigh law office, the single former lawmaker laid out a detailed timeline of the fling. She testified that their first intimate encounter occurred around Memorial Day 2024 at a Napa, California Airbnb. She recalled Ammel kissing her outdoors before they went inside and consummated the relationship. They were not alone at the property either. Her friends Penny and Grant Croissant were there, along with additional members of her security detail.
The trysts kept rolling from there. Round two happened in June 2024 in New York City while Sinema attended CNN anchor Jessica Dean's wedding. They booked separate hotel rooms but wound up together in hers. A month after that, they were intimate again at her Washington, D.C. apartment following a late night cross-country flight.
By mid-August, the pair traveled to Aspen, Colorado for what Sinema described as a fundraising trip. They slept together there too. Ammel confirmed yet another encounter in D.C. during September, though Sinema could not recall that one. The final confirmed hookup took place in October 2024 at her Phoenix residence.
Sinema fully acknowledged knowing Ammel was a married father of three children throughout the entire relationship. Let that sink in.
The deposition also produced some awkward exchanges about flirty communications. Lawyers grilled her about a photo she texted to Ammel showing herself wearing only a towel. Her defense? She claimed the image was about cupping marks from her athletic training and conveniently could not remember sending it.
Then there was the text message where she wrote about placing her hand on his heart and telling him she missed him. When the attorney pointed out that any wife reading such a message would rightfully be alarmed, Sinema offered a one-word response. "Yes."
The next major chapter in this courtroom drama unfolds on August 19, 2026, when an evidentiary hearing is scheduled. Whatever political legacy Sinema hoped to preserve after leaving office in early 2025 just got considerably more complicated.
Read more American news stories at: The American Tribune
