Indicted and Running: How Baltimore State Sen. Dalya Attar Is Campaigning Through Federal Charges — and Why Her District May Still Vote for Her

Attar faces eight federal charges, including extortion and conspiracy, in an alleged scheme to blackmail a political consultant. The primary is June 23. The governor, the mayor, and the state's attorney have all aligned against her. She is still in the race — and still has supporters.

In a political environment that has grown accustomed to improbable storylines, few have been as striking as the one playing out in Baltimore's 41st Legislative District. Dalya Attar, a 35-year-old Democratic state senator and former prosecutor, is running for her first full term in the Maryland Senate while fighting eight federal charges that include extortion, conspiracy, and wiretapping — stemming from an alleged scheme to secretly film a political consultant in bed with a married man, then use the footage as leverage to silence her.

The primary is June 23. Attar is still on the ballot. And by most measures, she is still campaigning.

She has continued fundraising, filmed campaign videos, and run alongside her legislative slate — Dels. Sandy Rosenberg and Sean Stinnett — under the Team 41 Unity banner. She has touted her record on juvenile justice and community investment. And she has maintained, through attorneys and in public statements, that she is innocent, that she was the real victim of harassment, and that the federal charges represent the allegations of a "former disgruntled employee."

What makes Attar's race so unusual is not simply that a sitting senator is facing federal charges. It is that she is doing so in full public view, in a competitive primary, with some of the most powerful political figures in Maryland arrayed against her — and still, as of this writing, has a constituency that has not fully abandoned her.

The Charges: What the Federal Indictment Alleges

The grand jury indictment, unsealed October 30, 2025, in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, charges Attar with eight counts: conspiracy to commit extortion, extortion under color of official right, use of a facility in interstate commerce in furtherance of extortion, and wiretapping-related offenses. Her co-defendants are her brother, Joseph "Yossi" Attar, a real estate developer, and Kalman Finkelstein, a Baltimore City Police officer whose police powers were suspended in 2022 amid the federal investigation.

The alleged scheme, as described in the indictment, centers on a political consultant who worked for Attar during her 2018 campaign for the Maryland House of Delegates. The two had a falling out after Attar was elected, and the senator became concerned that the consultant — described as a dual citizen of the United States and Israel — was "looking to screw me badly," according to messages cited in the indictment.

Prosecutors allege that in 2020, when the consultant was staying in an apartment belonging to Finkelstein's family, the defendants planted tracking and recording devices inside the unit. Those devices allegedly captured footage of the consultant in bed with a married man. The recordings were then allegedly used as leverage: stop speaking negatively about Attar before the 2022 election, or the video would be released to members of the Orthodox Jewish community in which both the consultant and the married man had ties.

According to the indictment, Joseph Attar sent the consultant a series of threatening WhatsApp messages in June 2022: "Leave my family alone and nothing will ever come out." He followed that with: "Put me to the test. I dare you."

All three defendants pleaded not guilty in federal court in November 2025. Attar's attorneys subsequently filed a motion to dismiss several of the extortion counts, arguing that she sought no money or property — only "freedom from 'Victim 1's ongoing and well-documented stalking, harassment, threats, and demands." The motion argued the case was a mutual conflict, not a criminal scheme. The case remains pending. No trial date has been publicly announced.

Earlier this month, a federal judge added a new layer of complexity: U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher ruled that Attar could not publicly reference confidential evidence from her criminal case as part of her reelection campaign, after she sought to do so. The ruling underscored the degree to which the legal and political tracks of this story have become intertwined.

Why She Can Still Run: Maryland Law and the Presumption of Innocence

The most common question surrounding Attar's candidacy is also the most legally straightforward: Why is she allowed to run?

The answer lies in a bedrock principle of American law and Maryland's own constitution. An indictment is not a conviction. Every defendant, regardless of the charges, is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Maryland's constitution makes clear that elected officials cannot be removed from office on the basis of charges alone.

Article XV, Section 2 of the Maryland Constitution specifies that the process for suspending or removing elected officials is triggered only upon a final conviction — either through the exhaustion of appeals or the entry of a guilty or no-contest plea. Until that threshold is crossed, Attar retains both her seat and her right to seek reelection. The Maryland Senate may impose administrative sanctions — censure, removal from committees, loss of leadership positions — but it cannot force her from the ballot.

"Removal occurs after a conviction becomes final," Baltimore attorney Nick Copper explained after the indictment was unsealed. "In the meantime, the Senate may impose administrative sanctions, but she remains a senator."

That framework is consistent with federal law as well. Nothing in federal or state election statutes bars a candidate under indictment from seeking or holding office. The voters, not the courts, are the mechanism for political accountability in the absence of a conviction.

What Her Opponents and Political Figures Are Saying

The political establishment surrounding the 41st District has moved sharply against Attar since the indictment became public — a near-complete reversal of the coalition she had assembled before October 30.

Del. Malcolm Ruff, 41, her primary opponent, has been unambiguous. "Values matter, and the 41st District deserves much better representation than this in the State Senate," Ruff said in a statement. Ruff, a civil rights attorney who grew up in the district and was appointed to the House of Delegates in 2023, launched his Senate campaign in August 2025, before the indictment was made public, framing the race around investment and representation for the district's diverse communities spanning Northwest, West, and Southwest Baltimore.

Since the indictment, Ruff has consolidated an extraordinary level of institutional support. He has received endorsements from Gov. Wes Moore, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, U.S. Rep. Kweisi Mfume, state Sen. Antonio Hayes, former Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, and seven Baltimore City Council members. The breadth of that coalition — spanning the governor's office, City Hall, the congressional delegation, and the council — reflects a degree of political consensus unusual even in contested primaries.

The posture of Baltimore State's Attorney Ivan Bates adds a particularly charged dimension to the race. Bates had endorsed Attar and her legislative slate in October — before the indictment was unsealed. When a campaign flyer surfaced in late May 2026 still prominently featuring Bates's endorsement and photograph, his office moved to distance itself.

"As the sitting State's Attorney and Chief Law Enforcement Officer for Baltimore City, he cannot and will not become involved in this state senate race due to the ongoing legal proceedings involving the state senator," said spokesman Hassan Giordano. The statement was notable for what it implied: that the city's top prosecutor, who had personally endorsed Attar, now found it impossible to publicly maintain that support. Attar, for her part, posted a video to her Facebook page featuring a clip of Bates praising her work — touting an endorsement that had effectively been withdrawn.

Neither Governor Moore nor Mayor Scott has issued specific statements condemning Attar by name beyond their endorsement of Ruff. That institutional alignment — backing the challenger without publicly denouncing the incumbent — is itself a form of political judgment.

State Senate President Bill Ferguson's office said when the indictment was first unsealed that it had "just been made aware" of the arrest and would "continue to hold its members to the highest ethical standards as we learn more." Ferguson has since traveled to Attar's district to spotlight an $800,000 capital project — a gesture observers read as support for the district rather than for the senator.

Why Some Voters May Still Support Her

To understand why Attar still has a constituency, it is necessary to understand the 41st District.

The district is one of the most demographically complex in Baltimore: predominantly Black in many of its western precincts, with a significant and politically organized Orthodox Jewish population in the northwest, alongside immigrant communities and economically struggling neighborhoods that run alongside wealthier enclaves. It is a district that, by design and history, requires coalition politics.

Attar, the first Orthodox Jewish woman ever elected to the Maryland General Assembly and later the first to serve in the Maryland Senate, occupies a singular position in that coalition. For a portion of her constituency — particularly within the Orthodox community — her representation is not merely symbolic. It is strategic, reflecting years of political organizing to achieve meaningful influence in Annapolis. The fear, articulated plainly in some community publications, is that if Attar loses, it could take years or decades to rebuild equivalent representation.

"Senator Attar is not just another elected official. She is the first Orthodox Jewish woman ever elected to the Maryland Senate and among the highest-ranking frum elected officials in the United States," wrote one Orthodox news outlet covering the race. "Many within the Jewish community see this election as bigger than one Senate seat. There is a growing feeling that if the Orthodox community loses this level of representation, it could take years or even decades to rebuild the same degree of influence and trust in Annapolis."

Beyond identity politics, Attar's defenders point to her substantive record. She is a former assistant state's attorney. She has championed juvenile justice legislation. She has maintained relationships with community organizations across the district. And she has argued, loudly and consistently, that she is the victim in this case — that a former employee spent years harassing her family, and that the indictment tells only one side of a more complicated story.

The presumption of innocence carries genuine weight in communities that have seen wrongful prosecutions, federal overreach, and the destruction of reputations by charges that never resulted in convictions. In Baltimore, that history is not abstract. For voters who hold that view, Attar's continued candidacy is not a scandal — it is an assertion of due process.

The Stakes of June 23

The Democratic primary on June 23 will effectively decide the general election in this heavily Democratic district. What it decides about Attar extends beyond one Senate seat.

If Attar wins, she would enter the general election as an indicted incumbent, with a trial date still to be set and the possibility of conviction hanging over any term she might serve. Under Maryland law, a conviction on a felony related to her public duties would trigger removal proceedings. The district could find itself mid-term without a senator, requiring the appointment process to begin again — the same process that produced this race in the first place.

If she loses, Ruff — backed by the governor, the mayor, and much of the city's political establishment — would become the heavy favorite in November and likely arrive in Annapolis with considerable institutional goodwill.

The question Baltimore's 41st District must answer in less than two weeks is a version of one that American democracy asks repeatedly and never fully resolves: At what point do voters decide that legal jeopardy disqualifies a candidate, even in the absence of a conviction? And who decides — the courts, the party, or the people who live in the neighborhood, who know the candidate, and who will cast the ballots?

Dalya Attar has not stepped aside. She has not withdrawn. She is, by every available measure, still running. What happens next is up to the voters of Northwest, West, and Southwest Baltimore — and the answer they give on June 23 will say something about accountability, community, and the complicated business of democratic politics that no court ruling has yet been able to settle.