Judge dismisses extortion counts against Sen. Dalya Attar, co-defendants

A federal district judge Friday dismissed extortion charges against Sen. Dalya Attar (D-Baltimore City) and two codefendants, saying their alleged attempts to coerce a political opponent did not rise to the level of extortion, which requires an attempt to get “tangible, transferrable things.”

Friday’s ruling Judge Stephanie Gallagher does not throw out all the charges against Attar, her brother, Joseph “Yossi” Attar, and Kalman Finkelstein, a former Baltimore City Police Officer Kalman Finkelstein, a political supporter of Attar’s. The three still face conspiracy and wiretapping charges for allegedly videotaping a former Attar campaign consultant having an affair, then threatening to release the video if the consultant did anything to interfere with Attar’s 2022 reelection bid.

But Gallagher threw out six extortion-related charges against the three, apparently agreeing with their attorneys who argued in December that the case was not about an an attempt “to obtain money, property, or a thing of transferable economic value,” which is required for extortion. Attar “simply wanted to be left alone” from the “well-documented stalking, harassment, threats, and demands” of the former consultant, they argued.

After a hearing Wednesday on the motion to dismiss the charges, Gallagher ruled Friday that two extortion charges and another four charges for violating the “travel act” to further an extortion scheme had to be thrown out because the alleged actions of the defendants constituted coercion, not extortion.

“This Court acknowledges that, on its own, ‘any money or other thing of value’ or similar language can be and has been interpreted to encompass intangible things,” Gallagher wrote. “But … in the context of this statute, the word ‘extort’ must limit ‘any money or other thing of value’ to only tangible, transferrable things, and not forbearance, consistent with
the common law definition of extortion.”

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“Although this Court does not condone the conduct alleged in the indictment, because § 875(d) does not criminalize it, this Court must dismiss” the extortion counts, she wrote.

The conduct Gallagher refers to was outlined in an October indictment that claimed the three engaged in a scheme to blackmail the former campaign consultant, who was working to stop Attar’s reelection to a House of Delegates seat in 2022.

The indictment detailed a plot that involved tracking devices, secure messaging apps and hidden video cameras to get incriminating information on the consultant, who had a falling out with Attar after here 2018 election. The indictment cites WhatsApp messages from Attar to a unnamed co-defendant in which she said the consultant was “looking to screw me badly,” and was “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.”

The consultant, who split her time between Israel and the U.S., often stayed in an apartment owned by Finkelstein when she was in Baltimore. The defendants were charged with hiding video cameras in smoke detectors in the living room and bedroom of the apartment, which they used to get video of the consultant having an affair with a married man.

In late 2021, Joseph Attar met with the married man to tell him there were “hours of footage of you in bed” with the consultant, and that he needed the man to convince the consultant to “stay out of this election” if he wanted to make the issue go away.

Attar was reelected to the House in 2022 and subsequently appointed to fill the District 41 Senate seat vacated by former Sen. Jill Carter. The indictment came down last October. All three pleaded not guilty to the charges.

In their motion to dismiss the extortion charges in December, Attar’s attorneys described a “campaign of harassment” carried out by the consultant against Attar, after she was terminated from Attar’s 2018 campaign “for misconduct.” The filing alleges that the consultant began “relentlessly texting” Attar and members of her family, “with threats to cause economic and reputational harm.”

The consultant also showed up uninvited at restaurants, at Attar’s parents’ home and “other unexpected locations” for the “sole purpose of haranguing Senator Attar,” according to the filing. Further, the consultant attempted to convince a school that Joseph Attar’s children attended, to expel them “without any rational justification.”

Attar remains in the Senate and was active throughout the 2026 legislative session, but she was unseated in the June Democratic primary by Del. Malcolm Ruff (D-Baltimore City).