A federal judge just kept a very uncomfortable lawsuit alive.
Kyrsten Sinema thought she had an easy out — and the court disagreed.
And now the former senator is staring down a homewrecker lawsuit she cannot simply make disappear.
Nine Texts That Changed Everything
A federal judge ruled that former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) can be sued under a homewrecker law in North Carolina.
Sinema acknowledged having a romantic relationship with Matthew Ammel but argued that she cannot be sued in North Carolina because she has no connection to the state. Her legal team pushed hard on that point, insisting North Carolina courts had no business touching this case.
US District Judge David A Bragdon rejected that argument, saying nine text messages she sent Ammel while he was in the state give North Carolina jurisdiction over her.
He found it implausible that she was unaware of Ammel’s whereabouts when she texted him. Nine texts. That is all it took to drag a former United States senator into a state court she wanted nothing to do with.
Ammel’s ex-wife, Heather Ammel, is suing Sinema under North Carolina’s homewrecker statute.
North Carolina law allows spouses to sue for “alienation of affection” and to seek compensatory damages from a third party responsible for the dissolution of a marriage. It is one of the few states in the country that still has this law on the books, and Heather Ammel used it.
Heather Ammel sued the former senator at the end of last year, seeking at least $75,000 from Sinema.
What Sinema Admitted Under Oath
In August, it was reported that Sinema admitted in a July deposition to having an affair with her security guard, Matthew Ammel, while she served in Congress.
Sinema said she knew Ammel was married and that the sexual affair began on May 27, 2024. She did not claim ignorance. She did not claim the relationship was something other than what it was. She simply admitted it.
She described the beginning of the affair: “We were staying at an Airbnb in Napa, California. We were outside. Matt kissed me. We went inside and had sex.” On another occasion, the former senator said she and Ammel had sex in New York while in town for CNN host Jessica Dean’s wedding.
Sinema also admitted to having sex with Ammel in Washington, Colorado, and Arizona, but not in North Carolina. That last detail was supposed to be her legal lifeline. The judge cut it.
In her lawsuit, Heather Ammel stated that she and her ex-husband had “a good and loving marriage” with “genuine love and affection” before Sinema arrived on the scene.
According to Heather Ammel’s lawsuit, her husband joined Sinema’s security team in 2022 after retiring from the US Army. He then began traveling with her domestically and internationally.
That summer, he stopped wearing his wedding ring and Sinema gave him a job as a national security fellow in her Senate office while he continued to work for her campaign as a bodyguard, the lawsuit alleges.
And the couple separated on Nov. 1, 2024.
What Comes Next for a Former Senator Turned Lobbyist
Sinema declined to run for reelection in 2024 and is now a lobbyist for Hogan Lovells Cadwalader, where she lobbies on behalf of AI and cryptocurrency companies, among other interests.
So the arc here is worth noting. Sinema spent years in the United States Senate positioning herself as an independent voice — someone who could not be pinned down, who answered to nobody, who bucked her own party at will. She left office without seeking another term. She walked into a comfortable lobbying gig for tech and crypto interests. And now she is sitting for depositions in a homewrecker lawsuit, describing the details of an affair with a married man who worked her security detail.
The legal argument her team tried — that she had no real connection to North Carolina — was not unreasonable on its face. Plenty of jurisdictional motions succeed on thinner grounds. But Judge Bragdon was not buying it. The key factor in Bragdon’s ruling was a series of text messages Sinema sent to Matthew Ammel while he was physically present at his North Carolina home. Those nine text messages were enough for the judge to determine that North Carolina courts have jurisdiction over the case.
It is a detail that has a certain poetic quality to it. Sinema sent texts to a married man she was having an affair with. Those texts happened to reach him while he was at his North Carolina home. And now those same texts are the reason she cannot escape a lawsuit filed in that state. The messages she sent are the chain she cannot slip.
North Carolina’s alienation of affection statute gets described as an old-fashioned relic by legal commentators who think the law has no place in modern courts. But Heather Ammel clearly disagrees. She lost her marriage. She filed a lawsuit. And a federal judge just told her she gets to pursue it.
The case also raises a straightforward question about accountability that does not require any legal expertise to understand. Sinema knew Ammel was married. She admitted it under oath. She gave him a job in her Senate office while the affair was ongoing, according to the lawsuit’s allegations. Whatever the legal outcome turns out to be, those facts are already in the public record — sworn testimony from Sinema herself.
Sinema’s lawyer, Steven Epstein, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
But the case moves forward. The motion to dismiss is gone. Heather Ammel gets her day in court. And the former senator, now lobbying for AI companies in Washington, DC, will have to keep answering for what she admitted to under oath.
That is not a legal technicality. That is a consequence.
Sources: Mediaite, “Court Rules Former Senator Can Be Sued Under Homewrecker Law in North Carolina”; NBC News, “Judge allows lawsuit against former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema under North Carolina’s ‘homewrecker’ law”; Fox News, “Kyrsten Sinema can be sued in NC under homewrecker law, judge rules”; The Hill, “Judge rules former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema can now be sued under NC ‘homewrecker’ law”
