Maryland State Senator Dalya Attar has been charged in a wild extortion plot in which she threatened to expose her political enemy's affair with a married man.
Attar, 35, is facing eight different charges over the conspiracy, which also involved her brother Joseph Attar and Kalman Finkelstein, a Baltimore policeman, as well as four unnamed accomplices, the Daily Mail reported.
Around January 2020, Attar and her co-conspirators planted tracking devices in the consultant's car, as well as hidden cameras inside smoke detectors at an apartment where the lovers met.
The plot was driven by Attar's fear that her rival would "screw" her out of re-election in the House of Delegates by sending out mailers to the Jewish community about her voting record. Attar is an Orthodox Jew and the first woman of the faith to serve in the Maryland State Senate.
Within days of being installed, the cameras had picked up a man visiting the apartment. “Damn, I wish I had [the man’s] stamina,” Finkelstein wrote in one message.
In December 2021, on the same day that Attar filed for re-election, her brother approached the consultant's lover and threatened to leak "hours" of compromising footage.
As part of the disturbing plan, the blackmailers invoked the consultant's daughters, warning they would not be able to find husbands in the conservative Orthodox community once the footage got out. "I’ll share this video with everybody you know, everyone she knows, every Rabbi in town, your kids, your wife, her daughters … I already have all her daughters’ phone numbers, right? And every shadchan [matchmaker] in Israel who is trying to set up her daughters, I’ll share these videos with," Joseph Attar said.
The married man told Attar's brother that the consultant had no intention of coming after Attar.
"I did what you asked. There’s nothing else I can do. [The consultant] has already indicated multiple times that she is not involved in any activity that could or would harm Dalia [sic]. She has no intention of harming her in anyway [sic] either.
"You have everything you asked for. Put it to bed. Leave me the hell alone," the man said.
In January of this year, Attar was appointed to fill a vacancy in the Maryland State Senate. She was pictured with Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, in a post on Attar's Instagram account.
"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," Attar said in a statement. "The case centers on the allegations of my former disgruntled employee. We have yet to see any tangible evidence to support the claim that I knew of any illegal actions taken on my behalf."
"I look forward to sharing my side of the story, and believe the truth will be the arbiter of justice. In the meantime, I will continue to serve my community with humility and honor, and look forward to being as transparent as possible," the statement added.
The Baltimore Banner reported that Finkelstein's police powers were suspended in 2022, and he has since been placed on administrative duty.
