WASHINGTON, D.C. — State Senator Dalya Attar's attorney on Tuesday filed a Motion to Dismiss three of the charges in the federal indictment against her.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Baltimore City State Senator Dalya Attar indicted on federal charges of extortion and conspiracy
Attorney Jeff Ifrah argues in the filing that the court must dismiss the counts of extortion filed against Attar because the statute requires an attempt to "obtain money, property, or thing of transferable value."
"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. "Senator Dalya Attar, her brother Joseph 'Yossi' Attar, and their friend, Kalman Finkelstein, simply wanted to be left alone."
This quote, in the indictment, is what the government alleges is one of the things Joseph Attar said to the unnamed Victim 2 during a meeting at the Greenspring Shopping Center.
"During the meeting, Joseph Attar used his cellphone to show Victim 2 a recording containing both audio and video of Victims 1 and 2 in bed together without their knowledge," the indictment says.
The indictment also says Joseph Attar told Victim 2:
Attar's attorney makes arguments on several fronts, including that, "the Government has conceded that it does not possess the video or images purportedly shown to Victim 2 by [Joseph] Yossi Attar during their meeting in December 2021."
The motion to dismiss also makes the argument that the recording of Joseph Attar at the meeting with Victim 2 was itself an illegal wiretap.
MORE: State Sen. Dalya Attar pleads not guilty to conspiracy, extortion charges
However, the main argument in this filing is that the government failed to allege an actual criminal count of extortion because the object of the extortion was not transferable property.
"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 to another," Ifrah wrote in the filing, quoting Sekhar v. United States (2013). "Relying on these longstanding common law principles, the Supreme Court has repeatedly rejected the notion that 'property' for purposes of conviction under a variety of federal statutes includes non-economic interests that are incapable of being physically acquired by or transferred to the extorter, such as authority privileges, or responsibilities."
Dalya Attar's legal team added that they still deny all the allegations in the indictment, but that these counts need to be dismissed as a legal matter.
The filing concludes that what the Attars and Finkelstein were really trying to do was free the now Senator Attar from the harassment of Victim 1.
"The value of that freedom—while a legitimate interest to the real victims in this case—does not constitute a transferable property interest required for federal charges," the attorney states.