A senior Pentagon official engaged in a year-long affair with a “professional astrologer” that’s led to an impending clash in a Florida courtroom.
On August 22, Anthony Tata filed a 17-page lawsuit against Amy Tripp—the self-proclaimed “internet’s most notorious astrologer”—in Palm County Circuit Court alleging that Tripp engaged in a sustained harassment and defamation campaign after the affair ended.
Though the plaintiff is named as “John Doe,” the filing asserts that he is “an official in the United States Department of Defense” and a novelist who was learning about astrology for one of his books.
The Cut reported that those details fit Tata, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. Tata is a retired Army general and the author of 13 military thrillers who lives in Palm Beach.
He’s also a former Fox contributor who once said that former President Barack Obama was a “terrorist leader” and that Islam was “the most oppressive, violent religion I know of.”
Separately from his lawsuit for harassment, Tata filed for a temporary restraining order (under his name) against Tripp in July, which was granted on August 7.
Tata’s entanglement with Tripp began in May 2024. The lawsuit claims that Tata and Tripp met on a dating app while the former military official and his wife were “struggling in their relationship.”
Soon, Tata had invested in Tripp’s astrology business, Starheal LLC, a market that he thought could be worth up to $10 billion, “according to Grok and ChatGPT.”
Tripp correctly predicted the day former President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race in 2024.
While the affair continued, “not without some drama,” Tata was nominated for his Defense Department (DOD) position in February. The undersecretary role is Senate-confirmed and gives broad latitude to execute personnel-related policies at the Pentagon.
Tata had been nominated for a senior DOD role in the first Trump administration, but his nomination was axed due to his history of inflammatory comments.
In June, a confluence of two events lit a match under the tryst: Tata reconciled with his wife, and Tripp read the star signs and thought his Senate confirmation was imminent.
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Tripp “informed John Doe that the astrological signs told her that [his] confirmation to his position in the Department of Defense was imminent.”
The next six pages of the complaint allege a three-month-long campaign by Tripp, as well as her parents, to extort and threaten Tata and his wife.
Tripp allegedly threatened to publicly accuse Tata of rape and Tata’s wife of stealing money from her job.
“I just told the White House. You want to be next? You have skeletons in your closet,” read one of Tripp’s texts to Tata’s wife included in the lawsuit.
Weeks after the fracas began, Tripp allegedly demanded $20,000 from Tata. After speaking to her father, she then upped the ante to $25,000.
The suit describes Tata as an “Afghanistan combat veteran diagnosed with PTSD” and says that Tripp’s threats caused severe emotional distress.
Apart from threatening texts and phone calls, the suit claims Tripp made public posts on X divulging personal details about him and his wife.
“Ms. Tripp and her followers knew John Doe and his wife’s name, their professions, and their images,” the suit reads.
Venus is at the Mercury-Mars midpoint. “Quick decisions in love matters, tendency to quickly fall in love. Exaggerating or fighting over relationship issues, fighting over a beloved woman.”
— starheal (@starheal) August 28, 2025
Tripp’s X account, @starheal, has more than 123,000 followers and posts frequently about both astrology and politics.
Yesterday, she posted, “Venus is at the Mercury-Mars midpoint. ‘Quick decisions in love matters, tendency to quickly fall in love. Exaggerating or fighting over relationship issues, fighting over a beloved woman.’”
On her website, Tripp offers $ 200-an-hour consultations to deliver products, including a “Best Date Analysis,” a “Birthday Report,” or a “Relationship Report.”
Yesterday, in a since-deleted tweet, Tripp seemed to cryptically refer to the lawsuit.
“Coercive controllers love to humiliate their victims and put them in double binds (orchestrated situations that no matter what they do it’s bad for them),” she wrote
While he was in the military, the Army’s Office of Inspector General found that Tata engaged in three extramarital affairs during his first marriage and fathered a son out of wedlock.
He didn’t contest the report’s findings.
Representatives for Tata and Tripp did not respond to an immediate request for comment.
The lawyer listed for Tata in his restraining order request works for the attorney representing “John Doe” in the harassment lawsuit. The latter attorney, Paul Turner, would not confirm that Tata is John Doe when reached by The Cut.
The Daily Beast has contacted the Department of Defense, Tata, and Tripp for comment.
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