A Maryland Democrat State Senator is accused of orchestrating a scheme to secretly record her former political campaign consultant-turned-critic in bed with a married man. The plan was allegedly to silence her former ally from criticizing her as she was running for re-election to the Maryland House of Delegates in 2020.
Messy Politics in Maryland
Maryland State Sen. Dalya Attar – along with her brother (Joseph Attar) and a Baltimore Police officer (Kalman Finkelstein) – have been indicted on one count each of conspiracy and illegal wiretapping, two counts of extortion, and four counts of violations of the Travel Act.
Both victims are unnamed in the 20-page federal indictment, unsealed on Thursday, that reads like a salacious tale of betrayal, revenge, adultery, bribery, and an obsession with power. The lawmaker is accused of orchestrating a scheme that involved her brother, Finkelstein, and up to four unnamed co-conspirators to place two recording devices, disguised as smoke detectors, in the apartment where the former consultant was living and a tracking device on the car she was driving. The consultant is a dual citizen of the US and Israel, and Finkelstein appears to have known her travel schedule and contacted her on WhatsApp when she was in Israel.
Even more extraordinary is that the consultant was a friend of Finkelstein’s wife, babysat his children, drove a family member’s car, and stayed in the apartment of his relative.
Prosecutors say the conspiracy took place between January 2, 2020, and July 2022. Texts and WhatsApp exchanges between Sen. Attar, her brother, and Finkelstein tell the story of how the lawmaker wanted to silence her former consultant, who had been critical of her on social media.
Conspiracy and Blackmail
“Because I believe she is building things up, even small things, but in the end when it’s the right time for her (close to re-election) it’ll come out…” one message read. “And even more reason why the lady should be afraid to come out with anything at any point.”
A few weeks later, her brother sent a message in the WhatsApp group chat, referring to the victim: “Shes [sic] in the house now,” and two hours later: “We have a visitor…”
By March of 2021, Attar appeared to apply pressure to the group to confront the consultant, known as Victim 1 in the indictment:
“[Victim 1] needs to be warned before mailers to the Jewish Community start coming out about things I’ve voted on in the last 3 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 me…There’s the perfect way to scare her re[garding] shidduchim. Each mailer can do a lot of damage. We have way that can potentially stop her.”
The Hebrew word shidduchim refers to a system of matchmaking in Orthodox Jewish communities for the purpose of marriage.
The group allegedly threatened to release the video of the consultant and Victim 2 in bed together, thereby harming the consultant’s daughters’ marriage prospects in the Orthodox Jewish Community, if they publicly criticized Attar or supported her challengers in the race. In early December 2021, Attar’s brother allegedly met with Victim 2 at a shopping center in Baltimore and said, in part:
“I have hours of footage of you in bed with [Victim 1]…hours…So, the only thing you need to do is very simple, is to 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.”
Included in that “everyone,” the indictment says, Joseph Attar explicitly named his kids, his wife, every Rabbi in town, and the consultant’s daughters. Joseph Attar showed Victim 2 a recording on his cellphone of him with Victim 1 in bed together. Five days later, he allegedly sent a WhatsApp message to Victim 2, asking if he and Victim 1 would comply. Speaking of the consultant, Victim 2 allegedly responded, “She has no intention of harming her in any way either. You have everything you asked for.”
Threats and Consequences
But the threats from the group continued. On April 8, 2022, the consultant posted on social media asking why certain delegates voted against an amendment. Attar allegedly reacted immediately by writing in a group chat:
“I personally like the idea of [JOSEPH ATTAR] physically showing the video to [FINKELSTEIN’s wife] because it will obviously get back to [Victim 1]…I personally don’t think [FINKLESTEIN] would like the idea of using [his wife], well I know he won’t like it, but at this point, I have an election coming up and I really don’t care. I just care about it getting back to [Victim 1] and she understands that we’re serious.”
In June 2022, Joseph Attar had a lengthy text conversation in WhatsApp with Victim 1 while she was in Israel, in which he made 13 threatening statements, according to the indictment. Those threats included showing the video to her daughters, son-in law, and her mother. “Put me to the test,” he said, “I dare you.”
Finkelstein has been on administrative leave since 2022, FOX45 in Baltimore reports. Attar served in the Maryland House of Delegates from January 2019 to January 2025, when she was appointed to the Maryland Senate. She served as assistant state’s attorney in the Office of the State’s Attorney for Baltimore City from 2015 to about September 2022, during the same time of the alleged conspiracy.
On Thursday, October 30, a judge in Baltimore ordered Attar to surrender her passport and not leave the state, the Baltimore Banner reported.
In a statement through her attorney to the local media, Attar said, in part: “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.”
It’s unclear from the indictment if the video was ever released.
