State lawmaker accused of extortion over secret recording tied to alleged affair

A Democratic senator was charged with extorting an ex-consultant having an affair in a secret sex recording, according to reports Thursday.

Maryland state Sen. Dalya Attar, a former prosecutor and the first Orthodox Jewish woman to serve in the state Senate, was charged by federal officials over an extortion plot that prosecutors say involved a political enemy in bed with a romantic partner, according to The Washington Post.

According to an indictment unsealed in a U.S. District Court in Maryland on Thursday, Attar was charged alongside her brother, Joseph, and politically appointed police officer Kalman Finkelstein, with eight counts related to extortion and wiretapping that happened between 2020 and 2022.

The three were released by a federal magistrate on Thursday. The judge ordered them to surrender their U.S. passports and has restricted their travel.

The plot started in 2020 when Attar wrote via WhatsApp that she wanted the political consultant to be “a nonissue in my mind.”

"The target of the extortion, prosecutors said, was a political consultant who worked on Attar’s 2018 House of Delegates bid and abandoned the campaign shortly before the election after the two had a falling out," The Post reports. "The consultant is not named in court documents but was described as a dual citizen of the U.S. and Israel who has worked on both Democratic and Republican political campaigns."

The allegations are expected to impact Attar's plans to run for her District 41 Senate seat in Baltimore, although it's unclear what will happen next.

She said she plans to “continue to serve my community with humility and honor, and look forward to being as transparent as possible.”

She added that the case against her “centers on the allegations of my former disgruntled employee.”