It was two weeks before the 2018 general election and Dalya Attar was all but assured a spot in the 141-member Maryland House of Delegates. A promising upstart, Attar sailed through the Democratic primary as the leading vote-getter among the three winners, setting her up to become the first Orthodox Jewish woman elected to the state legislature.
Her campaign seemed to be firing on all cylinders. Behind the scenes, however, a contentious split with a well-paid consultant was playing out — one that, seven years later, led to Attar, her brother and a close friend being federally indicted in an alleged blackmail scheme.
When the indictment was made public in October, the details of its 20-pages were salacious. The defendants, the indictment says, had secretly taped Attar’s former consultant in bed with a married man and then threatened to share the tape with the consultant’s family unless she agreed to sit out the 2022 House of Delegates election.
But unknown until now was a motive for the plot: The campaign manager had raised questions about potential campaign finance violations. That detail was included in recently unsealed documents that were made public after The Banner’s attorneys intervened in the case.
The consultant, whose name is being withheld because she is the victim of an alleged sex crime, told investigators that she was fired after she raised concerns internally about “potential straw contributions” and other improprieties under Maryland election law. A straw contribution is when one donor uses other people or entities to give money, often as a means to circumvent donation limits.
Straw contributions are illegal in Maryland and could result in a penalty of up to $1,000, though they are difficult to prove.
All three defendants have pleaded not guilty to the extortion plot.
Attar claimed that she was the real victim in the days after being charged. The consultant had been fired from the campaign for cause, Attar wrote in a since-deleted letter posted to social media.
“I wish I had known this woman’s true character when I made the mistake of hiring her," Attar wrote. “Shortly after I ended her contract, she sent a text message that said, ‘Beware. When you least expect it, expect it. Goodbye. This is my final warning.’”
A copy of that message was included in a court filing earlier that year, though no other context was provided.
Attar’s attorney, responding to questions about the new filing, sent a screenshot of the “beware” text message and their motion to dismiss the case.
Attar’s campaign has never been cited for a campaign finance violation, according to the state board of elections. She raised more than $100,000 in the 2018 cycle, including donations from a variety of corporate entities, records show. The consultant, who did not respond to a request for comment, was paid $14,000.
Even if the alleged straw contributions had come to light, it’s uncertain how much they would have damaged either the 2018 or 2022 campaigns.
“Many politicians survive a campaign finance infraction,” said Roger Hartley, former dean of the University of Baltimore’s College of Public Affairs.
Now a state senator representing parts of Northwest, West and Southwest Baltimore, Attar is running to keep her seat in a competitive primary against Del. Malcolm Ruff. It’s unlikely this iteration of her campaign, regardless of the outcome in court, will come out unscathed, Hartley said.
“What really sets this all off is something unethical but relatively tame,” he said. “If they’d just given the money back, none of this would have ever happened.”
Comments
Welcome to The Banner's subscriber-only commenting community. Please review our community guidelines.