Matthew Ammel, the ex-boyfriend and former bodyguard of Senator-turned-former-Senator Kyrsten Sinema, explained on Wednesday why he trashed her Arizona home in August, telling the Arizona Republic that he "threw her paintings into her swimming pool in part because he felt disillusioned by her relationship with a major U.S. Artificial Intelligence software developer as the war in Gaza drags on."

"I was pissed at the system and I took it out on her art," Ammel said, asserting that he suffered a mental breakdown on the night he caused $200,000 worth of damage to Sinema's home in Cave Creek, Arizona, a town on the northern edge of the Phoenix area. "The American people have no idea how (expletive) up our government is and, like, what our politicians spend their time doing."

Ammel, a former Green Beret — the nickname for the U.S. Army's Special Forces — told the Republic that he struggles with brain injuries from his time in the military and that his traumatic war experiences are still raw in his mind. According to the outlet, the destruction went beyond the paintings: Ammel also smashed pricey bottles of alcohol and an expensive mirror.

A bitter split and a custody dispute

Ammel is currently engaged in a "homewrecker" lawsuit brought against Sinema by his ex-wife, and he asserted that the media has wrongly painted him as an adulterer and a bad person. "I'm not a bad guy," Ammel said. "I'm not crazy. I'm just really (expletive) smart, and I've seen behind the curtains."

According to Ammel, he had been trying to end his relationship with Sinema and since March has been living and working as a cowboy at Camp San Luis Obispo, a small California National Guard base.

As the Republic explained, Ammel said he felt that Sinema, a lawyer and former social worker, had taken control of his custody dispute and made it worse. He said she was closely involved in preparations for the hearing alongside his lawyer and his psychiatrist. The custody hearing went poorly, Ammel said, and he confronted Sinema about it when he returned to Phoenix for medical treatment.

"I was angry, admittedly so. When I tried to talk to her about it, she abandoned me," Ammel told the Republic. Sinema left him at her house and went to stay with friends and in hotels, and he trashed her home two weeks later.

An Iraq video and grievances over foreign policy

Expressing frustration with U.S. foreign policy and the military-industrial complex, Ammel told the Republic that he had previously demanded Sinema post a video of soldiers from his first deployment helping a man they had shot in Iraq. In the seven-minute video, which Ammel said was filmed in the spring of 2007, soldiers administered medical care to the bloodied man and picked him up in a helicopter.

Ammel said he wanted Sinema to post the video "because she works for some of the companies that financially benefit from the genocide in Gaza and the current war we're losing in Iran."

"The same news channels and politicians championing war now were calling us terrorists and racists for our behavior during this time period. (None) of this makes sense. That's what I was angry about," Ammel told the Republic.

"I was trying to get her to come back home, or to do something, or to use her connections for good instead of for, to make money," he elaborated. "I was just going through it, and I don't usually drink, and I got drunk and I destroyed some of her paintings."

From progressive senator to Palantir events

Sinema was elected to the Senate in 2018, running as a progressive Democrat, but drew controversy when she sided with Republicans on several consequential votes. She registered as an independent in December 2022 and did not seek a second term, leaving the Senate in January 2025. After leaving office, she and Ammel worked together advocating on a number of issues, but Ammel said he became disillusioned with the direction of Sinema's post-government career as the war in Gaza continued and a new conflict in Iran began.

According to the Republic, Ammel said he accompanied Sinema to an event linked to a top leader of the AI company Palantir, a British American Tobacco Board dinner, and the wedding of CNN anchor Jessica Dean to Alex Katz, a senior managing director of government affairs at Blackstone, the world's largest alternative asset management firm. Palantir is a U.S. software company whose data-analytics platforms are used by government agencies, including in defense and intelligence.

Ammel described feeling disturbed by his last trip with Sinema to Washington, D.C., where they attended an event for Palantir CEO Alex Karp. He said it felt to him like a "genocide celebration" of the war in Gaza.

"Kyrsten was there rubbing elbows with Trump's personal lawyer and, like, it was legitimately the most insane thing I had ever seen," Ammel said.

Legal fallout

In the wake of the incident, Ammel was charged with aggravated criminal damage, a class 4 felony in Arizona, an offense category that can carry prison time. He was released with an ankle monitor and an order to leave Sinema alone. Ammel is now waiting for his next court date and preparing for what he called the worst case scenario: going to jail.