Dalya Attar case: Most charges dismissed against MD senator

Most of the criminal charges against state Sen. Dalya Attar, D-Baltimore City, were dismissed Friday.

U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher granted Attar’s motion to dismiss, tossing six extortion-related charges, ruling that the lawmaker didn’t violate those laws because the “thing of value” she sought was not a tangible reward like money.

Two charges remain: conspiracy and interception and disclosure of a wire or electronic communication. In her December motion, Attar did not seek to dismiss those charges. The decision also applies to all three defendants.

Prosecutors in October indicted Attar, her brother Joseph Attar and their friend, Kalman Finkelstein, accusing them of blackmailing a former political consultant. They are accused of recording the consultant having an affair with a married man and threatening to publish the recording if she spoke publicly against Attar’s campaign.

Her lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Joseph Attar’s and Finkelstein’s attorneys both declined to comment.

In June, Sen. Attar lost to state Del. Malcolm Ruff in the Democratic primary for the Northwest Baltimore seat.

Gallagher dismissed two counts of extortion via interstate communications and four extortion counts under the federal Travel Act. Gallagher wrote that although she “does not condone the conduct alleged in the indictment,” neither statute applies to the conduct of which they were accused.

“Because the purported thing of value was Victim 1’s forbearance from acting in certain ways, the conduct as alleged would constitute common law coercion, which common law extortion does not reach,” Gallagher wrote in dismissing the two counts for extortion via interstate communications.

“Accordingly, (the law) does not criminalize the conduct alleged in the indictment.”

This story has been updated with the declines to comment.