Maryland Dem senator, brother, police officer charged in alleged extortion

A Democratic senator from Maryland is accused of orchestrating a scheme to secretly file two critics — together with a former marketing campaign adviser — in mattress collectively after which use the pictures to threaten and silence them, in line with a newly unsealed federal indictment.

Federal prosecutors say Senator Dalya Attar, her brother Joseph “Yossi” Attar and Baltimore police officer Kalman Finkelstein secretly filmed the couple throughout an intimate assembly after which used the recording to intimidate them into silence.

The 20-page indictment, unsealed Thursday, accuses the trio of conspiracy, extortion, unlawful wiretapping and violations of the Journey Act.

Prosecutors allege the group focused the guide, recognized as Sufferer 1, who had labored for Attar’s 2018 marketing campaign and later supported her political rivals. Sufferer 2 was in a romantic relationship with Sufferer 1 and was married to another person on the time, the paperwork present.

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In response to the indictment, the defendants positioned hidden cameras disguised as smoke detectors and a monitoring machine within the victims’ condominium, then considered photos displaying the couple in mattress collectively.

Prosecutors say the recording was then used to threaten publicity if any of the victims publicly spoke out towards Attar or supported her opponents.

In early 2021, Attar reportedly mentioned easy methods to cease potential criticism, saying in a WhatsApp message, “Now we have an easy … easy approach to make her shut up and depart us alone. … She is apprehensive about her youngsters’s shidduchim.”

She reportedly added, “I am not saying we’re leaking this wherever or ever doing that… however I am saying we’re warning her… ‘When you hold messing with me, we’ll leak it.'”

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Senator Dalya Attar of Maryland and two different people had been federally indicted on October 30, 2025, on racketeering and conspiracy expenses. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/The Baltimore Solar/Tribune Information Service through Getty Photos)

In December 2021, Joseph Attar reportedly met with one of many victims at a Baltimore mall and warned, “I’ve hours of footage of you in mattress with [Victim 1] …Go to [Victim 1] and say: depart Dalya alone… or I’ll share this video with everybody : each rabbi on the town, your youngsters, your spouse, her daughters.”

Prosecutors say the threats continued into 2022 because the defendants allegedly ensured each victims remained quiet forward of Attar’s re-election marketing campaign. The indictment additionally states that the three coordinated by way of encrypted WhatsApp messages, which they repeatedly deleted to keep away from detection.

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Dalya Attar (far proper) is accused of secretly filming two critics in mattress collectively in an try to silence them. (Karl Merton Ferron/The Baltimore Solar/Tribune Information Service through Getty Photos)

The fees carry potential penalties of many years in jail. Attar’s workplace didn’t reply to Fox Information Digital’s request for remark.

Baltimore Police Chief Richard Worley advised FOX 45 that Finkelstein has been on administrative obligation since 2022 and now not has police powers.

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Attar, a Democrat and former prosecutor from Baltimore, was elected to the Maryland Home of Representatives in 2018 and appointed to the Senate in January 2025.

She was thought-about a rising determine in Maryland’s Orthodox Jewish group.