Attar, brother and campaign volunteer charged with reelection extortion plot

A Maryland state senator, her brother and a Baltimore City Police officer are in federal custody facing federal charges in an alleged blackmail scheme.

The grand jury indictment charging Sen. Dalya Attar (D-Baltimore City) and others was unsealed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. Prosecutors allege Attar, then a delegate, worried that a disgruntled political consultant would turn against her during her 2022 re-election bid.

The 20-page indictment details how Attar, her brother and a campaign volunteer who was also a Baltimore City Police officer, carried out a scheme to videotape the consultant having an affair, then use the recordings  to threaten the consultant as she sought to arrange the marriages of her daughters.

It was a conspiracy that included the use of tracking devices on vehicles, video cameras hidden in smoke detectors, and interstate and international communications using the WhatsApp messaging service.

“It was the purpose of the conspiracy that the co-conspirators sought to surreptitiously obtain evidence of the relationship between Victims 1 and 2 so that the evidence could be used to prevent Victim 1 from … engaging in any act or speech that could negatively impact the election campaign or political aspirations of Dalya Attar,” according to court documents.

Attar, a former Baltimore City assistant state’s attorney, was elected to the House of Delegates in 2018 and re-elected in 2022. She was appointed in 2025 to fill the seat vacated by Sen. Jill Carter (D-Baltimore City), who resigned after being appointed to the State Board of Contract Appeals.

With the appointment, Attar became the first Orthodox Jewish woman to serve in the Maryland Senate.

A spokesperson for Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) said Thursday that they had just “been made aware of state Senator Dalya Attar’s arrest and we don’t have any additional information to provide at this time.”

“The Senate of Maryland holds its members to the highest ethical standards as we serve our constituents, and we will continue to do so as we learn more about the alleged facts in the indictment,” the Ferguson spokesperson said.

As Attar prepared for her 2022 reelection to the House, she worried about the unnamed female political consultant, with whom she had a falling out after the 2018 campaign, prosecutors said. Attar worried the consultant would try to torpedo her reelection, according to court records. In messages to an unnamed co-conspirator on WhatsApp, Attar worried the consultant “is still looking to screw me badly,” according to the indictment.

“I just want her to be a non-issue in my mind and in reality that won’t happen as long as she is relevant or doesn’t have anything to worry about,” Attar said in a Jan. 9, 2020, message according to the indictment. “Because I believe she’s building things up, even small things, but in the end when it’s the right time for her (close to reelection), it’ll come out … And even more reason why the lady should be afraid to come out with anything at that point.”

A week later, prosecutors said the delegate’s brother, Joseph Attar, and Kalman Finkelstein, a police officer, exchanged messages in which they discussed following the consultant.

The consultant, a U.S. citizen who also lives in Israel, is a friend of Finkelstein’s family. She frequently used a car and apartment owned by the Finkelsteins when she visited Baltimore, the indictment said.

By mid-January, Finkelstein and Joseph Attar, also known as Yossi or Jay, were discussing buying a tracking device that would be placed on the vehicle driven by the consultant. They also discussed, with two other unnamed co-conspirators, recording devices that would be installed in the apartment where the consultant stayed, according to court records.

Joseph Attar and Finkelstein, again using the secure messaging app, allegedly planned when to install video cameras inside smoke alarms in the bedroom and living room areas of the apartment used by the consultant.

In one Jan. 16 message, Finkelstein told two unnamed co-conspirators that the consultant was watching his children until his wife came home. Later that day, Joseph Attar sent a voice message announcing the installation of the cameras.

“Got it connected, tested them and all that. Now I’m on my way there now to go and pick the lock and try to get in,” court records quote Joseph Attar as saying.

It is unclear how long the recording continued. Prosecutors alleged that Dalya Attar sent a series of messages on March 11, 2021, to an unnamed co-conspirator in which she talked about the ongoing effort.

The delegate allegedly wrote that the consultant “needs to be warned before mailers to the Jewish community start coming out about things I voted on in the last three years. We’re nearing my election. We can’t wait until she does it already. Things as simple as anti-police things … She wants her daughters to get married more than she wants to screw with me … There’s the perfect way to scare her re[garding] her daughters shidduchim…Each mailer can do a lot of damage. We have a way that can potentially stop her. Why not at least try.”

A shidduchim is a matchmaking process within the Orthodox Jewish community. Both Attar and the consultant are Orthodox Jews.

By early December, Attar, her brother and Finkelstein were moving their plot forward.

Joseph Attar met with a man described as Victim 2, a married man who was allegedly engaged in the affair with the consultant. The two met at the Atrium at Greenspring Shopping Center in Baltimore.

It was during that meeting that prosecutors allege Joseph Attar told the man of the existence of “hours of footage of you in bed” with the consultant. Attar allegedly told the man that to make “this go away permanently” that he needed to convince the consultant to leave his sister alone.

“Don’t bring her up anymore to anyone. Stay out of this election, the delegate election,” Joseph Attar is alleged to have said. Prosecutors said he then showed the man a video recording of him in bed with the consultant, and warned of the consequences if the man did not do as he was told.

“I’ll share this video with everybody you know, everyone she knows, every Rabbi in town, your kids, your wife, her daughters,” Joseph Attar is alleged to have said. “And every shadchan in Israel who is trying to set up her daughters.”

Later that day, prosecutors said Joseph Attar messaged the consultant saying she should speak to Victim 2.

Five days later, in a message between Victim 2 and Joseph Attar, the man confirmed he spoke to the consultant, who “has indicated multiple times that she is not involved in any activity that could harm Dalia [sic]. She has no intention of harming her in anyway either. You have everything you asked for. Put it to bed. Leave me the hell alone.”

Before the end of 2021, Finkelstein and Del. Attar allegedly messaged each other. In that message, prosecutors said Finkelstein urged the delegate to “push [victim 2] one more time.”

Prosecutors said the trio began messaging about the plot again on April 8, 2022.

In an exchange with her brother, Dalya Attar raises concerns about a Facebook post authored by the consultant. The post questioned why some delegates voted against an amendment on a bill before the legislature.

“Looks like she wants the world to know about her and [victim 2],” the delegate allegedly wrote.

She later added that “it’s time to show someone that’ll get back to her,” according to court filings. Attar later allegedly sent a voice message to an unnamed co-conspirator. In it, she allegedly suggested that the co-conspirator should talk to Joseph Attar “about a smart move.”

The plan was to show some of the video to someone who would tell the consultant about it — possibly Finkelstein’s wife.

“I just care about it getting back to [the consultant] and she understands we’re serious. Not another little threat or something like that, she needs to understand we’re serious,” the delegate allegedly said in the voice message.

Prosecutors said Joseph Attar did eventually contact the consultant. In a June 28, 2022, exchange, repeated the threat to send the video to the consultant’s family and the matchmakers. “Do you really want to go down this road?” Attar asked, according to the indictment.

In follow-up messages, Joseph Attar allegedly wrote: “Just leave my family alone and nothing will ever come out” and “put me to the test. I dare you.”

Attar, her brother and Finkelstein face more than a half-dozen charges including conspiracy and extortion. They are also charged with interception and disclosure of wire, oral or electronic communications, and four counts of violating the federal travel act for their use of “a facility of interstate commerce” as part of the alleged extortion plot.

Court records show all three were in federal custody on Thursday. None had lawyers, according to online records.

The charges have potential election implications for Attar, who was appointed to the seat 10 months ago. The district she represents is diverse with sizable Black and Jewish populations.

Attar edged out Del. Malcolm Ruff to replace Carter earlier this year.

Ruff, who was appointed to the house in 2023, announced in August that he would challenge Attar for the Senate seat in 2026.

That race has the attention of Ferguson, the Senate president. He traveled to Attar’s district to spotlight an $800,000 capital project.

The press conference was a first for Ferguson, who had not participated in similar events during his time as Senate president. He later held a similar event for Sen. Shaneka Henson (D-Anne Arundel). Both women were appointed to their seats and are expected to face challengers in 2026.