TJ Walker reports that Maryland State Senator Dalia Attar (also spelled Attar/Altar in coverage) has been federally indicted on eight counts of extortion and conspiracy for allegedly covertly filming two critics in bed and threatening to release the footage during the 2020 and 2022 election cycles. The indictment reportedly names Attar, her brother Joseph Attar, and a Baltimore officer, Kalman Finkelstein, alleging hidden cameras disguised as smoke detectors and use of a car tracker; Attar denies the allegations. Walker frames the case as an ethical and political cautionary tale about attempts to silence critics backfiring and ties the episode into wider Democratic Party dynamics and viewer commentary.
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Indicted Maryland State senator accused of bedroom blackmail plot. Here's the story. It's a doozy. The Daily Mail reports Maryland State Senator Dalia Altar has been indicted on not one, but eight federal counts of extortion and conspiracy after prosecutors say she helped secretly film two critics in bed and threatened to release the footage to silence them during the 2020 and 2022 election cycle. According to the indictment, Attar, her brother Joseph Attar and Baltimore officer Kalman Finkelstein allegedly planted hidden cameras disguised as smoke detectors and used a car tracker. Prosecutors say the target was a political consultant Attar once worked with. Messages cited in the filing describe threats to share this video with everybody you know, every rabbi in town. Attar denies wrongdoing, calling the allegations from a former disgruntled employee and saying, I would never knowingly jeopardize my constituents trust. Maryland Senate leadership says it holds members to the highest ethical standards while facts are reviewed. What's the real message here? Yes, modern technology does allow you to track people and secretly video to tape you. But guess what? It's really hard to keep secrets secret. If you do sneaky, underhanded things, trying to destroy other human beings, as this Maryland state senator did, you are the one likely to see your own career destroyed. First, let's dig a little deeper here because this to me is, it's, it didn't happen to me or anyone I know. And perhaps it's wrong of me. But it does seem at some level funny to go to, to this extreme. But these are serious charges. Eight felony indictments. Look, if you want to enter public life as a state senator, as a political candidate anywhere, Even as a YouTuber or a TikToker, guess what? People are going to criticize you. If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. If you can't take criticism, just stay behind the scenes. There's nothing wrong with that. You can live a quiet, humble life, let other people spotlight. But a part of the spotlight means people are going to criticize you. And these days, if you try to push that criticism down, if you try to hide it, if you try to sweep it under the rug, it's going to come back to haunt you. That is going to be the bigger story. The old mantra and the Watergate area era. It's not the crime, it's the COVID up. If you're trying to cover up or hide people who've said nasty things about you, the mud is going to get on you. And in this particular case, I don't follow. I don't report to be an expert on all Maryland state politics. But I can't imagine even if the senator doesn't get convicted, it doesn't destroy her career or frankly, be the first thing anyone ever thinks about. Let's say, for example, she's able to stay in office. Free cocktail party. Every policy meeting she ever goes to, first thing in people's heads is going to be, who better watch myself. I don't want to be video recorded doing anything naughty. People are going to be laughing behind her back forever and again. She could be proven innocent, but we will see. But this seems to be an extraordinarily extreme, extreme ethical breach, legal breach. When you're setting people up, videotaping them in, you know, doing sexual things, bad things are going to happen to you. Now this happened to Jared, Jared Kushner's father. He was in a family dispute and essentially did this with another another individual got caught in the setup and it really came back to haunt them. Let's take some comments are coming in and user618 writes, we are paying big time now. WEF controlled. Okay, if you want to elaborate on that, I'm not sure which story you're referring to. Alan writes, what are we up to? TJ well, we're up to what I love doing every single day. We're looking at the top stories of the day, filtering it through the lens of communication skills and media skills and personal development skills. So this particular issue involves a state senator, a Democratic state senator in Maryland who is alleged to have video recorded her, a former ally, an opponent who became an opponent who apparently is alleged to have been having an affair with a married man. She wanted to stop the criticism. And, and now instead of getting a little bit of criticism that maybe a handful of people in her district know, she's getting criticism from the entire world. So that is the problem when you go that stream fish, as I'm looking forward to the day the left wing of the Democratic Party goes away. Okay. If you want to elaborate that on that, fine. My challenge to you would be define who you think that is because certainly you could make the case that Bernie Sanders, AOC are members of the left wing party. Guess what? They don't have any real power. One of the things I heard from every left winger, every strong progressive in America that I talked to is that they didn't consider Joe Biden or Kamala Harris to be left wing. They consider them too centrist, too mainstream, too pro corporate, and they weren't very excited about them. So there is a big fight right now going on in the Democratic Party as they anticipate and gear up for what might be an election in 2028. Should they go further left and excite a base, or should they go for someone who's seen as really centrist, like a Kentucky governor, Andy Beshear, a Democrat who is wildly popular in a Republican state? So that's a debate we'll be following very closely on this show right here. Tubman says no one cares about kings. It's all about merit. That's the way I think it should be, referring to an earlier story. But then why are so many people watching a Prince Harry podcast or a movie? Why do people swoon when Princess Diana came to the United States, you know, quarter of a century, 30 years ago? People do care about monarch. I think they shouldn't if they actually believe in democracy. To me, it's the two are completely contradictory.
