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NEW YORK — The lawyer for the woman who accused former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault said Saturday that he believes prosecutors plan to dismiss some or all of the charges.
Attorney Kenneth Thompson told The New York Times that he got a letter from an assistant district attorney offering to meet with his client Monday, the day before Strauss-Kahn’s next scheduled court appearance.
The letter was written in terse tones and said the purpose was to discuss what would happen in court the next day. It said prosecutors would only meet the woman at 3 p.m.
“Should she not be available or should she fail to attend, I will assume that she does not wish to take advantage of this opportunity,” wrote the prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Artie McConnell.
“If they were not going to dismiss the charges,” he told the newspaper, “there would be no need to meet with her. They would just go to court the next day to say, `We’re going to proceed with the case.’ ”
Thompson sent an email to The Associated Press saying he was on a plane and couldn’t immediately discuss the issue.
A spokeswoman for the Manhattan District Attorney’s office declined to comment.
Strauss-Kahn was arrested during a May visit to New York City after a housekeeper at a Manhattan hotel told police he attacked her when she arrived to clean his suite. The woman, Nafissatou Diallo, told police that he forced her to perform oral sex and then left the hotel.
The arrest prompted Strauss-Kahn to resign from the International Monetary Fund, and disrupted his political career in France, where he was seen as a probable candidate for president.
But in July, prosecutors said publicly that Diallo had lied to them about her personal history, and about some critical details of the case. She also admitted lying to U.S. immigration officials about her life in Guinea, her native country, when she applied for political asylum in 2003. A law enforcement official also said prosecutors discovered that, a day after the alleged attack, Diallo had called a friend to talk about the incident, and that during that call she had mentioned Strauss-Kahn’s wealth.
The district attorney’s office then agreed to relax the conditions of Strauss-Kahn’s bail, allowing him to be freed from house arrest.
The Associated Press generally doesn’t name people who report being sexually assaulted unless they agree to be identified, as Diallo has done.
The sex assault case against former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn appears to be in trouble amid reported concerns over the alleged victim’s credibility.
Law enforcement officials have told US media the accuser has repeatedly lied since the alleged attack on 14 May.
The Guinean-born maid also appeared to have lied about her asylum application, officials reportedly said.
Mr Strauss-Kahn is due in court on Friday. His lawyers are expected to ask for his bail conditions to be relaxed.
The 62-year-old French politician has been under house arrest in a New York apartment since posting a $6m (£3.7m) cash bail and bond in May. He has armed guards, electronic surveillance and wears an electronic ankle monitor.
‘Thrown to the wolves’
He is charged with seven counts including four felony charges – two of criminal sexual acts, one of attempted rape and one of sexual abuse – plus three misdemeanour offences, including unlawful imprisonment.
Mr Strauss-Kahn, who resigned as head of the International Monetary Fund to defend himself, vigorously denies the charges.
Former Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin described the latest developments as “a thunderbolt”. “He was thrown to the wolves,” Mr Jospin said, in an apparent criticism of the US justice system.
In earlier court hearings, prosecutors had spoken of the strength of their case. One attorney said the proof against him was “substantial”.
But US media now report that prosecutors plan to outline their concerns about the 32-year-old maid’s credibility to the judge in Friday’s unscheduled court hearing.
Although forensic tests found unambiguous evidence of a sexual encounter between Mr Strauss-Kahn and the woman, prosecutors now do not believe much of what the accuser has told them about the circumstances or about herself, the The New York Times reports.
Law enforcement officials believe there are inconsistencies over claims the immigrant accuser made in her application for asylum, particularly over an allegation that she had been raped in her native West African state of Guinea, US media reports.
The maid told the authorities that Mr Strauss-Kahn accosted her after she entered his room in New York’s Sofitel hotel to clean it.
The defence team had been expected to argue that a sexual encounter occurred, but that it was consensual.
In recent weeks, they had claimed to have information that “gravely undermined” the credibility of the woman, but the New York Times says it was the prosecutors’ own investigators who uncovered the current reported inconsistencies.
Until his arrest, Mr Strauss-Kahn was seen as a leading candidate to be the next centre-left French presidential candidate and challenger to conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy.
The BBC’s Christian Fraser says that, although there are still two weeks left for socialist candidates to put their name forward for next year’s presidential election, it seems unthinkable that Mr Strauss-Kahn could still enter the race.
In the days after his arrest, his reputation was further tarnished by a litany of stories about his reputation as a womaniser.
The issues sparked some soul searching in France about attitudes in general towards sexual harassment and abuse, and the treatment of women in the workplace, our correspondent says.
On Wednesday, France’s former Finance Minister Christine Lagarde was officially named as Mr Strauss-Kahn’s replacement at the IMF.
Whatever the merits of this new evidence, or of the character of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the French felt particularly aggrieved at the way the case was conducted in the days after his arrest.
It was not only his reputation that was tarnished, but also that of the French nation in the eyes of the international community. The “perp walk”, the parading of the accused, the headlines such as “Chez Perv” and “Frog Legs It”, were widely perceived as insulting and humiliating.
And already the French media is talking about Mr Strauss-Kahn’s rehabilitation, even though there is unambiguous DNA evidence that a sexual encounter did take place.
The list of socialist candidates for next year’s presidential election is still open and will be for two more weeks. But it is surely unthinkable that Dominique Strauss-Kahn will re-enter the race.
Aside from the allegations in New York, there has been too much written about his previous encounters and his questionable behaviour towards women.
The former head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been moved to a new, more permanent location in New York City where he will await trial on sex assault charges.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn was reportedly moved from lower Manhattan to a townhouse about one mile (1.6km) away.
A lawyer for Mr Strauss-Kahn said on Wednesday his client was “very bored” under house arrest.
Mr Strauss-Kahn has denied charges of attempting to rape a hotel maid.
‘Plush’ townhouse
Mr Strauss-Kahn, who resigned last week as the head of the IMF, was seen smiling as he left the high-rise building where he had been staying, which is owned by the security company managing his home detention.
The French presidential contender, who is free on $1m (£618,000) bail, moved from New York’s financial district into a plush, four-bedroom townhouse in the city’s Tribeca neighbourhood, the Associated Press news agency reported, citing an unnamed source.
Mr Strauss-Kahn is under 24-hour guard and wears a monitoring bracelet.
His wife attempted to put him in a luxury building in another area of Manhattan last week, but those efforts were squashed when residents of the building complained.
Mr Strauss-Kahn, who has no prior criminal record, spent several days in jail on Rikers Island following his arrest on 14 May.
He is charged with seven counts including four felony charges – two of criminal sexual acts, one of attempted rape and one of sexual abuse – plus three misdemeanour offences, including unlawful imprisonment.
His accuser is a 32-year-old originally from Guinea in west Africa who reportedly told authorities that Mr Strauss-Kahn had accosted her after she entered his hotel room to clean it at the Sofitel near Manhattan’s Times Square neighbourhood.
Mr Strauss-Kahn, 62, denies the allegations and on 6 June is set to enter a formal plea.
With friends like these, maybe sexual assault allegation can disappear! The Post reports that the friends of former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn are contacting the overseas relatives of his accuser, “offering them money to make the case go away since they can’t reach her in protective custody… The woman, who says she was sexually assaulted by the disgraced former head of the International Monetary Fund, has an extended family in the former French colony of Guinea in West Africa.” A French businesswoman who knows Strauss-Kahn and his family says the friends “already talked with her family. For sure, it’s going to end up on a quiet note.”
Strauss-Kahn is accused of forcing the maid to perform oral sex on him in his Sofitel hotel suite on May 14. While the Manhattan DA’s office has apparently warned the accuser’s family not to accept calls from his connections, Cyrus Vance’s reach only goes so far. The source continued, “He’ll get out of it and will fly back to France. He won’t spend time in jail. The woman will get a lot of money”—possibly a seven-figure payout.
Fox News reported on the alleged exchange between the 32-year-old maid and Strauss-Kahn, which—allegedly—included him grabbing her breasts and bloody sheets:
The 32-year-old African immigrant repeatedly told her alleged attacker, “Please, please stop. No!” The sources said she had no idea who was staying in the $3,000-a-night junior presidential suite until after the alleged attack, which lasted approximately thirty minutes…The maid said she tried a variety of tactics to get herself out of the room and away from Strauss-Kahn. She said, “my manager is in the hallway,” which he wasn’t — but the former IMF chief wasn’t scared off. The single mother allegedly told the Frenchman that the job was important to her and any conflict with a hotel guest would result in her losing her job.
“Please stop. I need my job, I can’t lose my job, don’t do this. I will lose my job. Please, please stop! Please stop!” she told Strauss-Kahn, according to law enforcement sources.
Strauss-Kahn allegedly responded: “No, baby. Don’t worry, you’re not going to lose your job. Please, baby, don’t worry,” Strauss-Kahn responded, according to investigators. “Don’t you know who I am? Don’t you know who I am?”
Strauss-Kahn’s DNA was allegedly found on the maid’s clothing. His defense has suggested the encounter was consensual.
Strauss-Kahn, a leading French politician whose libido was apparently legendary in France, has been indicted on numerous charges and is out on $6 million ($1 million cash, $5 million bond) bail. He’s living at 71 Broadway, which has turned into a media circus, while his very wealthy wife is looking for other housing. But real estate brokers tell the Post that no one wants to work with him. At any rate, Strauss-Kahn has proclaimed his innocence.
TCHIAKOULLE, Guinea — Nestled in the mountains of northern Guinea, accessible only by foot, lies the birthplace of the maid who says Dominique Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her in a New York hotel.
With no electricity nor phone lines, the village of Tchiakoulle could not be further from the bright lights of Manhattan where one of its daughters has brought one of the world’s most powerful men to his knees.
In the shadow of steep cliffs in the Fouta Djallon region, home to the Fulani ethnic group, Tchiakoulle boasts seven concrete houses, one built by the alleged victim’s sister, and a few dozen mud huts alongside a river.
The 32-year-old hotel chambermaid at the Sofitel hotel accusing the former International Monetary Fund chief of sexual assault and attempted rape “was born here, her father was born here,” said her half-brother Boubacar, 42, born to the same father.
He was speaking to an AFP journalist who tracked down the woman’s home village after rigourous cross-checking and verification with his own family in New York and those of the victim.
Boubacar said his half-sister lived in Tchiakoulle until the age of 13 before moving to Labe, the main town in the region, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) away, but returned home to get married at about 17.
The couple had a daughter, but shortly after the marriage, her husband, the son of a rich Fulani marabout, passed away.
It was then that the young women left with her child to the United States, according to her half-brother.
He said her sister Hassanatou, already living in New York, had paid for her journey with the help of her husband, a shopkeeper in the Big Apple. Hassanatou is the owner of one of the village’s seven concrete houses.
Their mother usually lives in the house, but was seeking medical treatment in Dakar at the time of AFP’s visit.
The members of the accuser’s family living in the village describe her as very pretty, but illiterate, having never been to school. She attended a madrassa in the village where she learned to recite verses on the veranda.
Her uncle, Mody, remembers a girl who was “not rebellious”, while another relative in Labe describes her as “a serious, kind girl and no one knew any trouble from her.”
The 60-year-old said that three days ago he heard “on local radio that a white man abused a girl in the United States. I could not have imagined it was my niece.”
Cut off from the world, no one in the village knew what had become of their long-lost daughter, the last of six children — three girls, three boys — born to a father with two wives.
Her father was a poor farmer, but also a respected Muslim cleric in the region until his death at age 90 in 2009. Residents of the hamlet say her family was very pious.
Unlike her sister Hassanatou, the young woman appears to have cut all ties with her home village.
“Since my sister left over 10 years ago, I have spoken to her once,” said Boubacar, her half-brother.
“It was after dad’s death. I was in Bissau. I called to give her my condolences but as soon as she saw the number she realised it was from Africa and said: “don’t bother calling me”.
“She didn’t know who was on the other end of the line but when I told her she agreed to talk to me.”
Her uncle also has had no news from his niece: “Since she left I haven’t received a letter, photos, nothing.”
Thousands of Guineans live and work abroad in other African countries, Europe and the United States because, despite its massive mineral wealth, half of Guinea’s 10 million population live in poverty.
Nafissatou Diallo, maid assaulted by IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn
A hotel maid, Nafissatou Diallo, who says IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her was due to testify before a New York grand jury on Wednesday, as the French presidential hopeful faced growing pressure to resign.
A lawyer for the 32-year-old African widow dismissed a suggestion by Strauss-Kahn’s defense counsel that the incident at the luxury Times Square Sofitel last Saturday might not have been a sexual assault.
“There’s nothing consensual about what took place in that hotel room,” attorney Jeffrey Shapiro told NBC’s “Today” show, adding he believed she would testify “at some point today.”
The arrest dashed Strauss-Kahn’s prospects for the French presidency and raised broader questions over the future of the International Monetary Fund. Developing countries, looking to a succession, have questioned Europe’s hold on the post.
The United States, the IMF’s biggest shareholder, said Strauss-Kahn was clearly unable to go on running the global lender from a prison cell, whatever the legal outcome.
“I can’t comment on the case, but he is obviously not in a position to run the IMF,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Tuesday, calling for an interim head to be named.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Europe would naturally put forward a candidate to replace him if Strauss-Kahn decided to step down.
Germany, which wants a European to keep the job, said the IMF should deal with its immediate leadership internally and it was too early to discuss a successor to Strauss-Kahn.
French officials said John Lipsky, the IMF’s American number two, whose term expires in August, would represent the Fund at next week’s Group of Eight summit in Deauville, France.
China, Brazil and South Africa questioned Europe’s right to the top job but Europeans said it made sense for them to retain the post while the Fund plays such a crucial role in helping to ease the euro zone debt crisis.
Strauss-Kahn, who denies the charges, is expected to remain in New York’s Rikers Island jail, known for gang violence, at least until his next court appearance on Friday, when lawyers may again request bail. Any trial could be six months away.
If convicted, he could face 25 years in prison. A law enforcement source said he had been placed on suicide watch, but purely as a precautionary measure.
In the U.S. legal system, a grand jury convenes in secret to hear evidence and decide whether to indict the defendant.
In the only public hint of Strauss-Kahn’s possible line of defense, his attorney Benjamin Brafman told his arraignment hearing on Monday: “The evidence we believe will not be consistent with a forcible encounter.”
However, Shapiro said his client, an asylum seeker from the West African nation of Guinea with a 15-year-old daughter, told Reuters she had not been aware of Strauss-Kahn’s identity until a day after the alleged attack.
“She didn’t have any idea who he was or have any prior dealings with this guy,” the personal injury lawyer said.
“She wants to remain anonymous because she’s very much afraid that something could happen to her physically, she feels very threatened by this,” he said of the global attention.
SET-UP?
An opinion poll in France, taken before his first court appearance on Monday and released on Wednesday, showed that more than half the population believe Strauss-Kahn was set up.
The CSA poll found that 57 percent of respondents thought that the Socialist politician, who had been frontrunner for the 2012 election, was definitely or probably the victim of a plot.
Fully 70 percent of Socialist sympathizers took that view. Most French media have dismissed conspiracy theories.
The poll findings highlighted a cultural divide, with French Socialist politicians and commentators denouncing the public parading of Strauss-Kahn, unshaven and in handcuffs, before he has had a chance to defend himself.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg agreed such a display was humiliating and would be unfair if a defendant were to be found innocent. “But if you don’t want to do the ‘perp walk’, don’t do the crime,” he told reporters.
U.S. media have criticized the French for a tradition of secrecy on politicians’ sex lives, and for showing more compassion for Strauss-Kahn than for the alleged rape victim, whose identity some French newspapers have published.
The French daily Liberation said the IMF chief had told its editors in off-record comments last month that he had just the right qualities to lead France, notably a calm manner, in contrast to conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy.
“Today I fit with everything the French people want — recognized competence, calm, international experience,” he was quoted as having said at an April 28 meeting.
EUROPEAN JOB
The IMF said it had not been in touch with Strauss-Kahn since his arrest but it would be important to do so “in due course.” Two IMF board sources told Reuters the board would ask Strauss-Kahn whether he planned to continue in his post.
In Strauss-Kahn’s absence, Lipsky is temporarily in charge of the institution which manages the world economy and is in the midst of helping euro zone states like Greece, Ireland and Portugal tackle debt woes.
The White House is considering proposing David Lipton, President Barack Obama’s international economic adviser and a former deputy treasury secretary, to replace Lipsky, whose term ends in August, sources familiar with the matter said.
Strauss-Kahn began to lose European support on Tuesday.
“Given the situation, that bail has been denied, he has to consider that he would otherwise do damage to the institution,” Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter said.
A European has held the post of managing director since the IMF was created in 1945, and four of them have been French.
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde is thought to be interested in the post but her prospects have been clouded by a decision this month by a Paris public prosecutor to recommend a full-scale inquiry into her role in awarding financial compensation to a prominent businessman in 2008.
Emerging countries are starting to flex their muscle over who should succeed Strauss-Kahn, who had been expected to leave soon anyway to run for the French presidency.
China said on Tuesday the selection of the next IMF boss should be based on “fairness, transparency and merit.” It marked the first time that the fund’s third largest member has weighed in so publicly on an IMF selection debate.
South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and a senior Brazilian government official, who asked not to be named, said the next chief should be from a developing country, pressing a case to give emerging economies a greater say in world affairs.
But Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega said the affair should not be used to press for changes in the way the IMF head is picked, telling GloboNews TV the discussion “is too premature at this point” and Strauss-Kahn was “probably one of the best IMF chiefs that we had in the past years.”
