Maryland State Sen. Dalya Attar asks federal court to dismiss extortion case

Luke Parker, The Baltimore Sun on Dec 16, 2025

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BALTIMORE — Maryland State Sen. Dalya Attar, the Baltimore lawmaker indicted alongside her brother and a city police officer, filed a motion to dismiss the extortion and conspiracy charges against her on Tuesday, court records show.

In late October, federal investigators accused Attar, a District 41 Democrat, of orchestrating a blackmail and intimidation scheme to prevent a political rival — her ex-consultant — from harming her election campaigns. According to her indictment, the senator worked with her brother, Joseph Attar, and Baltimore Police Officer Kalman Finkelstein to obtain footage of the consultant and a married man “in bed” together.

The three defendants pleaded not guilty last month to eight charges during a brief hearing at the Edward A. Garmatz U.S. District Court in Baltimore. On Tuesday, however, they expanded on their plea, saying the alleged victim had, in fact, sustained a “prolonged campaign of harassment” against them.

“Senator Dalya Attar, her brother Joseph ‘Yossi’ Attar, and their friend, Kalman Finkelstein, simply wanted to be left alone,” reads the 17-page motion to dismiss, describing the accuser as “a disgruntled former employee.”

Sen. Attar did not immediately respond to comment requests sent to her government email address and a publicly listed phone number.

Attorney Jeff Ifrah, who submitted the motion on the senator’s behalf, told The Baltimore Sun on Tuesday that the defense hopes “the court will give proper consideration to our motion and that the court will dismiss the extortion related charges against Sen. Attar and her co-defendants.”

Federal officials bolstered their indictment with WhatsApp messages allegedly sent among the three defendants from roughly the start of 2020 to around the summer of 2022.

In them, the group appears to discuss footage from secret cameras planted in the consultant’s apartment and what to do with it.

At one point, referring to a public criticism made by the consultant, the senator allegedly texted her brother, “Looks like she wants the world to know about her and [Victim 2],” adding that “She needs to know we’re serious,” according to the federal indictment.

In Tuesday’s defense motion, Ifrah said the consultant began “relentlessly” threatening the senator’s reputation after being fired for undisclosed “misconduct.”

The senator’s lawyer wrote that with the alleged conspiracy, the defendants “sought nothing more than freedom from [the consultant’s] ongoing and well-documented stalking, harassment, threats, and demands.”

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