Newsweek reached out to lawyers for Sinema and Heather Ammel for comment via email.
Sinema represented Arizona in the Senate from 2019 through 2025 as a Democrat and later an independent. She is no longer a member of Congress, but there is still considerable interest in the activities of former politicians. Heather Ammel is seeking at least $25,000 from the former senator.
It was filed under alienation of affection, a type of lawsuit allowed only in a handful of states that allows spouses to seek damages from a third party.
Sinema responded to the lawsuit in a new court filing. She acknowledged having a "romantic relationship" with Matthew Ammel but argued the lawsuit should be dismissed as the affair took place outside of North Carolina.
Matthew Ammel began providing her security with the group Toa Group and Kinsaker in 2022. He was "on numerous security details for me from 2022 through 2024." She wrote that their relationship "became romantic and intimate" in May 2024. She was only in North Carolina once during the time Toa Group and Kinsaker provided her security for a campaign event in February 2023, she wrote.
She was introduced to his family in December 2023 after giving them U2 concert tickets in Las Vegas, she wrote. That was also when she learned he lived in North Carolina, but she also knew she was traveling out of the state for work, she said.
"I never had personal knowledge of him being physically present in North Carolina at any time I initiated or had communications with Mr. Ammel prior to November 2024," she wrote.
She said she "carefully reviewed" records of her communications and that "none of my telephone or email communications with Mr. Ammel between early 2023 and November 1, 2024, occurred while he was physically present in North Carolina."
"Stated another way, Mr. Ammel was physically outside the State of North Carolina at the time I directed 100% of my telephone and email communications to him during such time period. Furthermore, virtually all such telephone and email communications I directed to him during such time related solely to the security services he provided to me and my campaign," Sinema wrote in the court filing.
Sinema continued to provide details about numerous communications that she said occurred when Ammel was not physically in the state of North Carolina and disputed allegations that she communicated with him while he was physically present in the state.
Sinema was accused of initiating and engaging in numerous conversations with Matthew Ammel, "some of which were emotionally romantic and/or sexual in nature," meeting with him regularly outside of a professional environment, encouraging him to leave his wife and having made "repeated physically romantic and/or sexual encounters with" him, according to a complaint.
Sinema wrote in the filing: "The opposite of Plaintiff's allegations is true. I had no knowledge at the time I initiated any communications with Mr. Ammel that he was located in North Carolina at the time. Indeed, my research has confirmed that Mr. Ammel was located outside of North Carolina when virtually all of the communications addressed in this declaration occurred."
In a complaint against Sinema, Heather Ammel's lawyers wrote: "Specifically, during the Marriage and prior to Plaintiff and Mr. Ammel's Separation, Defendant engaged in numerous unlawful acts with Mr. Ammel both within and outside the State of North Carolina while Plaintiff and Mr. Ammel were domiciled in Moore County, North Carolina."
Heather Ammel's legal team has not commented on Sinema's filing. Her request for the lawsuit to be dismissed must now be reviewed by a judge.