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Former senator Kyrsten Sinema's bodyguard-turned-lover has revealed he trashed her Arizona home in a $200,000 rampage because he believed she had sold out to the military industrial complex.
asserted
she → sign → complex
Matthew Ammel, 39, was alone at her $2 million home in Cave Creek, a Phoenix suburb, on August 30 when he threatened to throw a painting into her pool every 10 minutes until she posted a video on her X account.
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she → threaten → account
She refused, and Ammel dumped 22 of her paintings into the pool, court records show.
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records → refuse → pool
He also hurled expensive liquor bottles, smashing a mirror and littering her home with glass.
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He → hurl → glass
The seven-minute video, filmed during his first deployment to Iraq in 2007, shows soldiers treating a bloodied man they had shot before loading him onto a helicopter, Ammel told The Arizona Republic.
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Ammel → film → Republic
He said he wanted it posted because Sinema 'works for some of the companies that financially benefit from the genocide in Gaza and the current war we're losing in Iran.
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we → say → Iran
Sinema, 50, served a single Senate term from 2019 to 2025 and has since joined law firm Hogan Lovells as a senior adviser.
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Sinema → serve → adviser
Ammel joined her security detail in 2022 before moving onto her staff, and the pair began an affair in 2024.
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pair → join → 2024
Ammel said he felt like 'arm candy' as he accompanied Sinema to events linked to AI defense giant Palantir, a British American Tobacco board dinner and CNN anchor Jessica Dean's wedding.
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he → say → Palantir
'I was pissed at the system and I took it out on her art,' Ammel told the Republic.
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Ammel → piss → Republic
'The American people have no idea how [expletive] up our government is and, like, what our politicians spend their time doing.'
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politicians → have → time
Ammel's case has been sent to a grand jury, court records show.
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records → send → jury
He is due to be arraigned on Thursday, with a trial set for February 25, 2027
Kyrsten Sinema walks through the Hart Senate Office Building in April, 2023
'
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Sinema → arraign → April
The same news channels and politicians championing war now were calling us terrorists and racists for our behavior during this time period.
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channels → champion → period
[None] of this makes sense.
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None → make → sense
That's what I was angry about,' Ammel added.
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Ammel → add → what
Ammel's case has been sent to a grand jury, court records show.
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records → send → jury
He is due to be arraigned on Thursday, with a trial set for February 25, 2027.
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trial → arraign → February
The Daily Mail has contacted his attorney, Kathryn Walter, for comment.
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Mail → contact → comment
Ammel, whose 14-year marriage collapsed over the affair, had been working as a cowboy at a California National Guard base since March but kept returning to Arizona.
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marriage → collapse → Arizona
Sinema urged him to come home when he fell ill, he said.
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he → urge → him
The former Green Beret said he had been trying to break up with Sinema, and accused her of taking over his custody fight with his ex-wife.
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he → say → wife
The hearing, which she helped prepare for with his lawyer and psychiatrist, went badly, he said.
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he → help → lawyer
'When I tried to talk to her about it, she abandoned me,' Ammel told the Republic.
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Ammel → try → Republic
Heather Ammel exits a court in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on August 19
Sinema at a hearing in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on August 19
Sinema decamped to friends' homes and hotels, according to Ammel, and he admitted he had been drinking when he trashed the house two weeks later.
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he → exit → house
His final trip to Washington with Sinema, to attend an event for Palantir CEO Alex Karp, felt like a 'genocide celebration' of the Gaza war, Ammel said.
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Ammel → attend → war
'Kyrsten was there rubbing elbows with Trump's personal lawyer and, like, it was legitimately the most insane thing I had ever seen,' Ammel told the Republic.
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Ammel → rub → lawyer
The Daily Mail has contacted Sinema and Palantir to ask whether she has a business relationship with the firm.
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she → contact → firm
Karp and other Palantir staff donated thousands to her campaign in 2022 and 2023, records show, and she returned some when she bowed out of the 2024 race.
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she → donate → race
'She would talk about how she would take bad people's money and use it for good, but like at some point, I didn't see her doing good anymore.
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her → talk → good
She was just doing the bad,' Ammel told the Republic.
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Ammel → do → Republic
Sinema also founded the Arizona Business Roundtable, launched an AI center at Arizona State University with OpenAI and lobbied for a failed data center in Chandler.
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Sinema → found → Chandler
Ammel met Sinema through Tulsi Gabbard, whose sister ran the senator's security detail when he joined it.
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he → meet → it
The pair bonded over his use of psychedelics to treat PTSD on a two-hour drive, he said.
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he → bond → drive
Ammel's ex-wife Heather is suing Sinema under North Carolina's 'homewrecker' law, accusing the former Democratic lawmaker of wrecking their marriage.
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Heather → sue → marriage
Sinema admits the affair.
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Sinema → admit → affair
Sinema testified the relationship turned sexual on a trip to Napa on May 27, 2024, months after she said she would not seek reelection.
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she → testify → reelection
She said later encounters took place in New York, Washington, Colorado and Arizona.
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encounters → say → York
Heather claims her husband told her Sinema got 'handsy' at a Tempe music festival, and that Sinema asked him to bring MDMA on a 2023 work trip to 'guide him through a psychedelic experience.
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Sinema → claim → experience
Ammel disputed his ex-wife's testimony that Sinema used her clout as his boss to take advantage of him.
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Sinema → dispute → him
…and 8 more, not listed.
The Aporia
