Maryland politics just took a nosedive into soap opera territory with State Senator Dalya Attar at the center of a jaw-dropping extortion scandal, as New York Post reports.
Attar, alongside her brother Joseph Attar and Baltimore police officer Kalman Finkelstein, faces serious charges, including extortion and conspiracy, for allegedly recording a former political consultant in a compromising position to silence her criticism during Attar’s 2022 re-election campaign for the Maryland House of Delegates.
The saga began after a falling out between Attar and the consultant, who once worked on her 2018 campaign, though the reasons for their rift remain murky.
By January 2020, prosecutors claim Attar was already scheming to neutralize the consultant as a political threat, discussing with a co-conspirator her desire to make the woman a “non-issue.”
That same month, Joseph Attar and Finkelstein allegedly took things to a creepy new level by placing a tracker on the consultant’s car and installing hidden cameras in a smoke detector at an apartment where she met a married man.
Their alleged goal? Capture intimate footage to use as leverage against the consultant, a plan that reeks of desperation and disregard for basic decency.
Fast forward to March 2021, and Attar reportedly fretted over potential criticism of her voting record, scheming to use the consultant’s personal life—specifically her daughters’ marriage prospects—as a pressure point.
“[She] wants her daughters to get married more than she wants to screw me,” Attar allegedly messaged a co-conspirator, per the indictment, suggesting this vulnerability was the “perfect way” to intimidate. Talk about playing dirty—using family as a bargaining chip is a low blow, even in the rough-and-tumble world of politics.
By December 2021, Joseph Attar allegedly confronted the married man involved, claiming to have hours of footage and demanding he tell the consultant to back off from Attar’s campaign or face exposure to family, rabbis, and matchmakers.
Five days after that chilling meeting, the man confirmed he’d relayed the message, insisting the consultant had no intention of harming Attar, yet the pressure didn’t let up.
In April 2022, after the consultant posted criticism of Attar’s voting record online, Attar allegedly discussed showing the compromising footage to someone who would tip off the consultant, signaling they were “serious.”
By June 2022, Joseph Attar upped the ante, sending threatening messages directly to the consultant, warning that her daughters and matchmakers in Israel might see the videos if she didn’t leave his family alone.
Now, with an eight-count indictment unsealed, the trio faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted on all charges, while Attar has been ordered to surrender her passport and stay in Maryland after a federal court appearance.
Attar, who made history as the first Orthodox Jewish woman in the Maryland State Senate, claims innocence, stating, “I ran for public office because of my strong belief in serving my community that I love, and I would never do anything to knowingly jeopardize my constituents’ trust in me.” While her words sound noble, the allegations paint a starkly different picture—one of calculated manipulation that clashes with the values of trust and honor she touts.
