Maryland Dem lawmaker indicted on extortion, conspiracy charges over using sex tape to silence political critic

Democrat state Sen. Dalya Attar of Maryland has been charged with extortion and conspiracy by a federal grand jury along with two others, court documents unsealed on Thursday revealed. Attar is a former prosecutor and allegedly targeted a political opponent with the extortion.

The federal indictment of Attar, as well as her brother and a Baltimore police officer, charged all three of the suspects with extortion and conspiracy in the targeting of a former political consultant in Attar’s 2018 run for the Maryland House of Delegates.

The three are suspected of using hidden cameras to film a sexual encounter between the former consultant and a married man. They then threatened the political consultant to stay silent about Attar's campaign. The cameras were hidden in smoke detectors to capture the sexual encounter that took place in January 2020, the indictment said.

"Victim 1 was a paid political consultant for Dalya Attar’s 2018 candidacy for the Maryland House of Delegates. Shortly before the election, Victim 1’s involvement with Dalya Attar’s campaign was discontinued after a disagreement,” the indictment said. “After leaving Dalya Attar’s campaign, Victim 1 was known by Dalya Attar and her associates to be unsupportive of Dalya Attar’s candidacy for office.”

Attar's brother, Joseph Attar, as well the police officer, Kalaman Finkelstein engaged in a conspiracy with the purpose to "surreptitiously obtain evidence of the relationship between Victims 1 and 2 so that the evidence could be used to prevent Victim 1 from (i) engaging in any act or speech that could negatively impact the election campaign or political aspirations of Dalya Attar (ii) performing any work for any other candidates for office who would challenge Dalya Attar, and (iii) otherwise taking any action that could negatively influence Dalya Attar’s election campaigns, including the 2022 Maryland House of Delegates election," the indictment added.

Joseph Attar allegedly planted the cameras and then in 2021, met with the married man, telling him that the former consultant should not talk about Attar's campaign and "stay out of the race."

Attar's brother told one of the victims in the case, "I have hours of footage of you in bed with [Victim 1]... hours."

"Here’s what I need you to do for this to go away permanently ... So, the only thing you need to do is very simple, is go to [Victim 1] and say to her, listen, leave Dalya alone. Don’t bring her up anymore to anyone. Stay out of this election, the Delegate election. And make sure she doesn’t do anything against Dalya throughout this election ... or I’ll share this video with everybody you know, everyone she knows, every Rabbi in town, your kids, your wife, her daughters. I have all her daughters’ numbers in the phone if you want to see that too, right? I already have all her daughters’ phone numbers, right? And every shadchan in Israel who is trying to set up her daughters, I'll share these videos with."

Maryland state Senate President Bill Ferguson said in a statement in response, “This is the first we have been made aware of state Senator Dalya Attar’s arrest and we don’t have any additional information to provide at this time."

Dalya Attar Indictment