Kyrsten Sinema already admitted under oath to sleeping with her married bodyguard while serving in the Senate.
Now that same bodyguard is facing a felony charge over what he allegedly did next.
Prosecutors say he threatened to destroy one painting every ten minutes until she caved.
The Ten Minute Ultimatum Inside Sinema's Cave Creek Home
Matthew Ammel was sworn to protect Kyrsten Sinema's body, not to raid her house.
On August 30, prosecutors say he did exactly that.
According to charging documents, the 39 year old former Army veteran entered Sinema's Cave Creek home without authorization.
He allegedly demanded she post a video to X.
If she refused, he vowed to wreck a painting every ten minutes until she gave in.
Police say roughly 22 of her paintings ended up ripped from the walls and floating in her pool.
Near the entryway, deputies say they found a canvas defaced with spray paint.
Investigators say he smashed expensive liquor bottles and hurled a glass bottle at a wall mounted mirror, scattering glass across the room.
The paintings alone were valued at $123,015.
Combined with the rest of the destruction, the damage topped $200,000.
Sinema reportedly handed investigators text messages, video, and surveillance footage to build the case.
Deputies took Ammel into custody on September 17 the moment he walked out of a mental health facility, and he reportedly grew too combative for his first court date.
He now faces a class 4 felony charge for aggravated criminal damage.
A judge released him on an ankle monitor with a no contact order, and his preliminary hearing is set for October 5.
Under Arizona law, a first time class 4 felony conviction alone carries a presumptive sentence of two and a half years, with a maximum of three years, according to Arizona Revised Statutes § 13-702.
Sinema's Campaign Committees Paid Her Lover Six Figures After He Left Her Detail
Ammel joined Sinema's security detail in 2022, the same year she was still cultivating her image as Arizona's independent voice in Washington.
By her account in sworn court filings, their relationship turned "romantic and intimate" in May 2024, while she still held her Senate seat and while he still wore a wedding ring.
Court records show the two carried on the affair across Sonoma, Napa, New York City, Washington, Aspen, and Phoenix, all while Sinema cast herself to Arizona voters as above the swamp's usual games.
After Ammel left her security detail, checks from Sinema's campaign and its affiliated committees totaling more than $100,000 followed him out the door.
His wife, Heather Ammel, found out and confronted Sinema directly, texting her: "Are you having an affair with my husband? You took a married man away from his family."
Heather sued in North Carolina for alienation of affection, accusing Sinema of wrecking a 14 year marriage.
Sinema tried to get the case thrown out.
A federal judge refused, ruling that Sinema's own testimony "has not been credible" on multiple points.
That is a federal judge's finding, on the record, about the woman Arizona once trusted to represent it in the United States Senate.
The Swamp Never Held Kyrsten Sinema Accountable Until Now
Nashville learned this exact lesson the hard way.
Mayor Megan Barry's affair with her police bodyguard, Sergeant Rob Forrest, blew up her career and ended in a felony guilty plea over the public money that covered their trips together.
Sinema's version adds a violent home invasion and a taxpayer connected payout most mayors never had to explain.
She built her whole brand as the incorruptible independent who answered to nobody, flashing rings and colorful wigs while lecturing colleagues about decorum on the Senate floor.
Behind that performance, a federal judge says she was not straight with the court, and her campaign machine wrote checks to the married man she was sleeping with.
Democrats called Sinema the reasonable one for years, the check on her party's excesses.
Nobody vetted what was happening inside her house until the paintings hit the pool.
The felony charge against Ammel is a serious matter for the courts to sort out on October 5.
But the sworn record already sitting in a federal courthouse is Sinema's alone, and no ankle monitor changes what a judge already said about her credibility under oath.
Sources:
- Jim Hoft, "Ex-Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's Former Bodyguard — the Married Man She Admitted Sleeping With While in Office — Now Faces Felony Charges After Alleged $200,000 Ransacking of Her Home," The Gateway Pundit, September 2026.
- FOX 10 Phoenix Staff, "Kyrsten Sinema's ex-bodyguard accused of causing $200,000 damage to her Cave Creek home," FOX 10 Phoenix, September 2026.
- Fox News Staff, "Nashville mayor who had affair with bodyguard resigns after pleading guilty to criminal theft," Fox News, March 2018.
- Arizona State Legislature, "13-702 – First time felony offenders; sentencing; definition," Arizona Revised Statutes, 2024.
