Virginia ? A Maryland rabbi ensnared in a nationally televised sex sting was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison Friday for attempting to have sex with someone posing as a 13-year-old boy.

David A. Kaye, 56, of Rockville, Md., was convicted in September on federal charges of enticement and traveling across state lines to engage in illegal sexual conduct.

Most of the evidence came from a sting on “Dateline NBC” that was conducted in conjunction with an Internet watchdog group called Perverted Justice.

A Perverted Justice member posing as a 13-year-old boy met Kaye in an online chat room in 2005, and Kaye solicited sex acts. When Kaye drove to what he thought was the boy’s home in Virginia, he was instead confronted by a TV reporter and camera crew.