Who Is Dalya Attar? Maryland State Senator Filmed Two of Her Critics Engaging in Sexual Act in an Attempt to Silence Them from Exposing Her

Maryland State Senator Dalya Attar has been indicted after allegedly recording two of her political rivals in bed together in an effort to intimidate or silence them. The shocking indictment, filed on October 23, claims that Attar, 35, planted multiple tracking and recording devices to catch her two political rivals in the act.

Prosecutors say she then threatened to release the footage of them “in bed” unless they agreed not to speak out against her publicly. Attar was investigated and has now been slapped with eight federal charges of extortion and conspiracy tied to the alleged scheme, which reportedly took place in the lead-up to the 2020 and 2022 elections.

Sextape for Blackmail

The alleged target of Attar’s scheme was a political consultant she reportedly filmed in bed with a married man. Attar, a Democrat, has served in the Maryland State Senate since 2019. She made history as the first Orthodox Jewish woman to hold a seat in the state senate and is recognized as the highest-ranking Orthodox Jewish woman in U.S. history.

She is currently running a closely watched campaign for re-election.

Attar is now in federal custody, along with her brother, Joseph Attar, and another man named Kalman Finkelstein, who is a city police officer, according to court records first reported by the Baltimore Sun.

According to the indictment, Attar, her brother, and Finkelstein allegedly worked with four unnamed co-conspirators to carry out the secretive scheme.

Attar had previously worked with the political consultant—who holds dual U.S. and Israeli citizenship—during her 2018 campaign, but the two soon parted ways after a disagreement.

Prosecutors say that the spat fueled Attar’s fear that the consultant was “looking to screw me,” particularly over flyers she believed might be distributed within the Jewish community, criticizing her voting record.

The indictment also alleges that Attar sought to use the blackmail to interfere with the consultant’s daughter’s ‘shidduchim’, the traditional Orthodox Jewish matchmaking process.

In a 2020 WhatsApp voice message, Attar reportedly said, “I just want her [the consultant] to be non-issue in my mind and in reality that won’t happen as long as she is relevant or doesn’t have anything worry about.”

Long-Planned Plot

Prosecutors say the plot began in January 2020, when the consultant was staying in an apartment belonging to Finkelstein’s family. While she was away, Finkelstein and Attar’s brother allegedly broke into the unit.

The two men allegedly installed cameras disguised as smoke detectors inside the apartment and placed a tracking device on the consultant’s car.

Five days later, Joseph messaged a WhatsApp group of the conspirators after a man entered the apartment, writing, “We have a visitor…”

In March 2021, prosecutors say Attar ordered her brother to threaten the consultant and the married man with the release of the footage unless the consultant agreed to “leave Dalya alone.”

She reportedly viewed the blackmail as “the perfect way to scare” the consultant into not distributing flyers about her voting record.

In November 2021, Attar allegedly told her brother and one of the co-conspirators, “if that video really exists, it’ll be really helpful now.” It remains unclear whether the video was ever shared.

On December 6, 2021—the same day Attar filed for re-election to the House of Delegates—Joseph allegedly contacted the married man to “discuss an opportunity.”

He reportedly told him that he had “hours” of footage showing him in bed with the consultant and demanded that the consultant “stay out” of the election.

Prosecutors say he threatened that if the consultant didn’t comply, the video would be shared with “everybody you know, everyone she knows, every Rabbi in town, your kids, your wife, her daughters.”

The Baltimore Banner reported that Finkelstein’s police powers were suspended in 2022, and he has since been placed on administrative duty.

Following news of Attar’s indictment, Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson’s office released a statement: “This is the first we have been made aware of state Senator Dayla 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.”