No trial date in sight for outgoing state Sen. Dalya Attar’s criminal case

More than one year after a federal grand jury indicted them on allegations that they tried to blackmail a political consultant, it remains unclear when outgoing Democratic state Sen. Dalya Attar, her brother and their friend will stand trial.

Dalya Attar, Joseph “Jay” Attar and Kalman Finkelstein appeared Friday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, where defense attorneys argued that a judge should bar the government from using evidence investigators obtained from their cellphones and online accounts.

U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher gave them one week to file additional legal briefs and did not issue a decision.

At the end of the hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Phelps suggested that the parties should discuss scheduling to avoid the trial getting pushed back until 2028. But one of Joseph Attar’s attorneys, Gregg Bernstein, responded that doing so would be presumptuous, given the judge must still rule on the evidence.

Gallagher previously granted a motion to dismiss most of the charges in the case, including extortion. The Attars and Finkelstein, a Baltimore police officer who’s been suspended without pay, are charged with conspiracy and interception and disclosure of a wire, oral or electronic communication.

Federal prosecutors allege the trio worked together to secretly record the state senator’s consultant in bed with a married man and threatened to share the recording unless the adviser agreed to stay out of the 2022 Maryland House of Delegates race. They have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

In 2018, Dalya Attar was first elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in District 41, becoming the first Orthodox Jewish woman voted into the legislature. She previously served as an assistant state’s attorney in Baltimore.

In 2025, the Baltimore City Democratic State Central Committee nominated Attar as its choice to replace Jill Carter in the state Senate, after Carter resigned her post to serve on the Maryland State Board of Contract Appeals.

Del. Malcolm Ruff defeated Attar in June’s Democratic primary and ran unopposed in the general election. The district contains Northwest and West Baltimore neighborhoods such as Pimlico, Park Heights, Edmondson Village, Mount Washington and Roland Park.