State Senator Charged in Alleged Blackmail Plot

Maryland state Sen. Dalya Attar faces federal charges after allegedly conspiring to secretly record a former political consultant in bed with a married man and threaten to release the footage, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday. Attar, a Democrat from Baltimore and the first Orthodox Jewish woman to serve in the state Senate, is accused of plotting the extortion scheme with her brother, Joseph Attar, and Kalman Finkelstein, a Baltimore police officer, the Washington Post reports. Prosecutors say the target was a dual US-Israeli citizen who had worked as a consultant on Attar's 2018 campaign before the two had a falling out. The three face charges including extortion and wiretapping related to alleged offenses between 2020 and 2022.

The three allegedly planted hidden cameras in smoke detectors in a Baltimore apartment where the consultant was staying, then threatened to distribute the recordings to members of the local religious community and matchmakers in Israel if the consultant spoke negatively about Attar. According to court documents, the consultant, identified as Victim 1, was in a romantic relationship with Victim 2, another Attar critic, who was married to another person at the time, Fox News reports.

• The indictment details a series of WhatsApp messages in which Attar and her co-defendants discussed tracking the consultant and leveraging the footage. At one point, Attar's brother allegedly showed the video to the consultant's romantic partner and threatened to expose the relationship if the consultant spoke out against Attar. "I'll share this video with everybody you know, everyone she knows, every Rabbi in town, your kids, your wife, her daughters," he said, according to court documents.

Attar was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 2018. She was appointed to the state Senate in January and the charges could upend her campaign for a full term in a competitive Baltimore district. Attar said she plans to continue serving and described the case as stemming from a "disgruntled employee." She maintains there is no evidence she had knowledge of any illegal actions. All three defendants were released after appearing in court, but their travel is restricted and they surrendered their passports.