Six of eight federal charges against state Sen. Dalya Attar, the first Orthodox Jew in the Maryland state legislature, were dismissed last week by a federal judge.

U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher ruled what Attar, her brother Joseph “Yossi” Attar and Baltimore City Police Officer Kalman Finkelstein are accused of does not rise to the level of extortion because they did not seek “tangible, transferrable things.”

The federal indictment against her, unsealed in late October, alleges Attar, 35, her brother and Finkelstein planted a hidden camera in a smoke detector in a former campaign consultant’s home to make recordings of an alleged affair.

The three still face conspiracy and wiretapping charges related to the alleged conduct and have pleaded not guilty.

In their motion to dismiss, Attar’s attorneys argued that the government’s own filing provided the basis for dismissing the charges. Prosecutors quote the statement “leave Dalya alone. That’s all that I want. That’s it.”

“These words — taken directly from the Government’s Indictment — make clear that this case is about a family seeking relief from a prolonged campaign of harassment by a disgruntled former employee,” the motion states. “Sen. Dalya Attar, her brother Joseph ‘Yossi’ Attar, and their friend, Kalman Finkelstein, simply wanted to be left alone.”

Attar, who lost the Democratic primary last month amid the allegations, filed the motion to dismiss in December.

“Based upon the offense’s historical origins, the Supreme Court has accordingly instructed that the ‘property extorted must therefore be transferable — that is, capable of passing from one person to another,’” the filing reads.

In the documents filed at the time, Attar’s attorneys also stated that the government did not have the alleged video footage that is the basis of the charges.

Attar’s legal team has argued the state senator and her associates as victims of harassment from the former consultant.

The filing includes a screenshot of a WhatsApp message from the consultant to Joseph Attar that says “Beware … When u least expect it, expect it. Goodbye. This is my final warning.”

The Attar team alleges that, after the consultant was fired for what it described as misconduct during Attar’s campaign for the Maryland House of Delegates in 2018, she began to harass the now-senator and her associates, “relentlessly texting them with threats to cause economic and reputational harm,” according to the document.

Attar’s lawyers also allege that the formerly employed consultant showed up to the school of Joseph Attar’s children, restaurants that the family attended, and Sen. Attar’s parents’ home for “the sole purpose of haranguing Sen. Attar.”

Attar represents the 41st District in northwest Baltimore. She was sworn in for her first term in the Maryland House of Delegates in January 2019 and won reelection in 2022.

In January last year, she was appointed to the Maryland State Senate, becoming its youngest current member. She has remained in office since the indictment.

The Attar team has firmly established its position that the charges do not stand up to scrutiny.

At the time the charges were announced, The Washington Post reported Attar released a statement in which she said that she plans to “continue to serve my community with humility and honor, and look forward to being as transparent as possible,” adding that the case against her “centers on the allegations of my former disgruntled employee.”

“We have yet to see any tangible evidence to support the claim that I knew of any illegal actions taken on my behalf,” the statement said. “I look forward to sharing my side of the story, and believe the truth will be the arbiter of justice.”

aguckes@midatlanticmedia.com