Overview
- Sinema said in a July 31 deposition that she first had sex with Matthew Ammel around Memorial Day 2024 in Napa and described additional encounters in New York, Washington, D.C., Aspen and Phoenix.
- Matthew Ammel confirmed a late-September Washington, D.C. encounter that Sinema could not recall, and Sinema acknowledged she knew Ammel was married and had three children during the 2024 encounters.
- Heather Ammel sued Sinema in North Carolina under the state's alienation-of-affection law, alleging those encounters helped end a 14-year marriage and led to the couple's November 1, 2024 separation and March 2026 divorce.
- Court filings include screenshots of text messages between Sinema and Ammel, including one in which Sinema wrote she kept waking up reaching for his arms, and those messages are being used as evidence in depositions.
- An evidentiary hearing on August 19 will decide jurisdictional and factual issues that will determine whether the case moves closer to trial or is dismissed, and the outcome will set the next legal steps for both the plaintiff and Sinema.