Salon.com > Dominique Strauss-Kahn http://www.salon.com Thu, 23 May 2013 01:58:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Strauss-Kahn and accuser to settle out of court http://www.salon.com/2012/11/30/strauss_kahn_and_accuser_to_settle_out_of_court/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/30/strauss_kahn_and_accuser_to_settle_out_of_court/#comments Fri, 30 Nov 2012 14:54:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13111180

NEW YORK — Word of a settlement agreement between former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn and a hotel maid who accused him of trying to rape her could bring an end to a saga that has tarnished Strauss-Kahn’s reputation, ended his hopes for the French presidency and renewed a debate about the credibility of sexual assault accusers.

But it might not mean the end of legal troubles for Strauss-Kahn. He is awaiting a ruling on whether he is linked to "pimping" in connection with a French prostitution ring.

A person familiar with the New York case said Thursday that lawyers for Strauss-Kahn and the housekeeper, Nafissatou Diallo, made the as-yet-unsigned agreement within recent days, with Bronx Supreme Court Justice Douglas McKeon facilitating that and a separate agreement to end another lawsuit Diallo filed against the New York Post. A court date is expected next week, though the day wasn’t set, the person said.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private agreement.

Details of the deal, which comes after prosecutors dropped related criminal charges last year, weren’t immediately known and likely will be veiled by a confidentiality agreement. That could prevent Strauss-Kahn and Diallo from speaking publicly about a May 2011 encounter that she called a brutally sudden attack and he termed a consensual "moral failing."

Strauss-Kahn lawyer William W. Taylor III declined to comment. Lawyers for the housekeeper didn’t immediately respond to phone and email messages.

Diallo, 33, and Strauss-Kahn, 63, crossed paths when she arrived to clean his luxury Manhattan hotel suite. She told police he chased her down, tried to yank down her pantyhose and forced her to perform oral sex.

The allegation seemed to let loose a spiral of accusations about the sexual conduct of Strauss-Kahn, a married diplomat and economist who had long been dubbed the "great seducer."

With DNA evidence showing a sexual encounter and Diallo providing a gripping description of an attack, the Manhattan district attorney’s office initially said it had a strong and compelling case. But within six weeks, prosecutors’ confidence began to ebb as they said Diallo had lied about her past — including a false account of a previous rape — and her actions after leaving Strauss-Kahn’s room.

Diallo, who’s from Guinea, said she told the truth about their encounter. But the district attorney’s office dropped the charges in August 2011, saying prosecutors could no longer ask a jury to believe her.

Diallo had sued Strauss-Kahn in the meantime, with her lawyers saying she would get her day in a different court. Strauss-Kahn called the lawsuit defamatory and countersued her for $1 million.

Her lawsuit against The Post concerned a series of articles that called her a prostitute and said she sold sex at a hotel where the Manhattan DA’s office had housed her during the criminal case. The News Corp.newspaper has said it stands by its reporting; a spokeswoman declined to comment Thursday.

In helping resolve the cases, McKeon averted what could have been an ugly court drama.

Strauss-Kahn initially said he had diplomatic immunity, an argument the judge turned down in May. Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers had since asked McKeon to throw out part of her claim for other legal reasons. Court records show the judge had yet to rule on that and several other legal issues, and it appeared that a high-stakes step — depositions, or pretrial questioning under oath — had not yet been taken. Depositions can give both sides information and a better picture of how strong the key parties and other witnesses might be in court.

While the vast majority of civil cases end in settlements, some legal observers were surprised that the deal between Strauss-Kahn and Diallo came before the legal arguments were resolved.

"I really expected it to go a little farther," said Matthew Galluzzo, a criminal defense lawyer and civil litigator who has been following the Strauss-Kahn case closely.

Still, the case likely had taken a toll on both Diallo, a single mother of a teenage daughter, and Strauss-Kahn, who has found himself plagued by accusations of sexual misconduct that further sullied his reputation. The Socialist had been seen as a potential leading candidate for the French presidency before his New York arrest.

In France, judges are to decide by Dec. 19 whether to annul charges linking him to a suspected prostitution ring run out of a luxury hotel in Lille. He acknowledges attending "libertine" gatherings but denies knowing that some women present were paid.

In August, a separate case against Strauss-Kahn, centered on allegations of rape in a Washington, D.C., hotel, was dropped after French prosecutors said the accuser, an escort, changed her account to say she wasn’t raped.

Soon after Strauss-Kahn’s arrest in New York last year, French writer Tristane Banon accused him of attempting to rape her during an interview in 2003, a claim he called imaginary and slanderous. Prosecutors said they believed the encounter qualified as a sexual assault, but the legal timeframe to pursue her complaint had elapsed.

The Associated Press does not name people who report being sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Diallo and Banon have done.

Strauss-Kahn has separated from his wife, journalist and heiress Anne Sinclair, who stood by him through the allegations in New York. The two said they were filing a lawsuit this summer against a French magazine, citing invasion of privacy, for reporting they had split, but Sinclair later acknowledged it was true.

The New York Timesfirst reported the agreement between Strauss-Kahn and Diallo.

 

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/30/strauss_kahn_and_accuser_to_settle_out_of_court/feed/ 0 Strauss-Kahn will not face charges http://www.salon.com/2012/10/02/strauss_kahn_will_not_face_charges/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/02/strauss_kahn_will_not_face_charges/#comments Tue, 02 Oct 2012 16:03:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13028026 PARIS (AP) — A prosecutor in northern France says officials have dropped a preliminary investigation into allegations of rape in a Washington, D.C., hotel by former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

State prosecutor Frederic Fevre in the northern city of Lille said Tuesday that the supposed victim, an escort girl, went back on her original account and now says no rape was involved, the Sipa news agency reported.

French officials opened the investigation in May into the alleged gang rape at the hotel in late 2010 — when Strauss-Kahn headed the IMF. He resigned last year after a New York hotel maid separately accused him of sexual assault.

Strauss-Kahn is still targeted in France in a separate probe into a suspected prostitution ring run out of the luxury Carlton hotel in Lille.

 

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/02/strauss_kahn_will_not_face_charges/feed/ 0 3. Bernard-Henri Levy http://www.salon.com/2011/12/16/3_bernard_henri_levy/ http://www.salon.com/2011/12/16/3_bernard_henri_levy/#comments Fri, 16 Dec 2011 17:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10435581 One upside to America's frothing populist hatred of intellectuals is that we don't produce many Bernard-Henri Lévys. Unfortunately, we tend to take other nations' tedious, fame-seeking big thinkers far too seriously. I think our magazine editors are seduced by accents -- it's the only explanation for why they keep trying to sell us "BHL" and Niall Ferguson.

So BHL, the famous and wealthy French philosopher, gets assigned to travel across America for the Atlantic, and produces the laundry list of clichés you'd expect: We're all fat and religious and we worship the flag and baseball.

BHL the intrepid reporter writes a book on the killing of Daniel Pearl, and it's rife with errors and prejudice.

He's prospered in intellectual circles despite his tragic inability to button a shirt in part because he's a successful businessman, born into wealth and friends with the French corporate elite. He writes with the self-assuredness of someone quite convinced of his brilliance, and that self-assurance perhaps explains why he so regularly makes shit up and gets shit wrong.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/12/16/3_bernard_henri_levy/feed/ 17 The DSK “victory dance” video proves nothing http://www.salon.com/2011/12/09/the_dsk_victory_dance_video_proves_nothing/ http://www.salon.com/2011/12/09/the_dsk_victory_dance_video_proves_nothing/#comments Fri, 09 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10303562 Sometimes a dance is just a dance.

In this case, it's a dance between two male security guards that Edward Jay Epstein, in his New York Review of Books piece suggesting the rape charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn were the result of a political conspiracy, described as three minutes long. Inconveniently, it is actually about 13 seconds long, as we can see for ourselves from the video the Sofitel has now released to French television. The NYRB has already issued a correction.

We can surmise that Epstein never saw the video, but rather had it described to him by an interested party. The length of the video aside -- how much victory dance can two American men stomach? -- it's likely that no one will change their mind based on this footage.

It seems hard to believe that two security guards would clasp each other this way to congratulate themselves on keeping a socialist out of office. It seems likelier that this was about sports. But opinions on this matter have always been fairly rigid and polarized.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/12/09/the_dsk_victory_dance_video_proves_nothing/feed/ 19 Why I was wrong about DSK http://www.salon.com/2011/08/26/dsk_dismissal_2/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/26/dsk_dismissal_2/#comments Fri, 26 Aug 2011 12:45:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life//feature/2011/08/26/dsk_dismissal_2 On Wednesday, I wrote a piece titled "The case against the DSK dismissal." I started out skeptical about feminist push-back against the district attorney's decision to drop the case against the former International Monetary Fund chief -- but I felt guilty about that, so I reconsidered. As is usually the case when emotions and politics grab the wheel, I realize now that I've ended up at a dead-end, and I'd like to make a U-turn and return to where I started. In the interest of intellectual honesty, allow me to debunk myself.

The DNA evidence alone does not prove that a non-consensual sexual encounter took place. In order for there to be any hope of proving Dominique Strauss-Kahn's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, a jury would have to put some trust in Nafissatou Diallo. However, as the D.A.'s office wrote in its brief, "the complainant's credibility cannot withstand the most basic evaluation." She has changed her accounting of events -- some of which might be explained by trauma or translation issues -- but the sum total of her conflicting accounts and false statements under oath led prosecutors to conclude that she had no chance of withstanding cross-examination.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/08/26/dsk_dismissal_2/feed/ 88 The case against the DSK dismissal http://www.salon.com/2011/08/24/dsk/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/24/dsk/#comments Wed, 24 Aug 2011 16:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life//feature/2011/08/24/dsk As feminist activists began to organize protests in response to the dismissal of the sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, I started to feel troubled by my lack of outrage. The news led so many women I respect to put pen to posterboard and broadcast their anger outside the courthouse steps. Meanwhile, I'd been thinking that the dismissal might actually make sense. After all, how can prosecutors be expected to push forward with a trial when they have lost all confidence in the complainant? As the district attorney's office said in its brief, "If we do not believe her beyond a reasonable doubt, we cannot ask a jury to do so."

Not feeling confident that I adequately understood the nuances of the argument against the dismissal, I went to some leading feminist activists for a primer. I challenged them to convince me, and Salon's readers.

Jaclyn Friedman, author of "Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape," says the major problem here is "the way the adversarial justice system works," she told me by phone. "Prosecutors only like to bring to trial cases they feel they can win, which makes them reluctant to bring difficult cases, which usually works against anyone alleging rape." As a result, that "sends the cultural message that most rape victims are lying, which makes it even harder to convince a jury because we're all jurists."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/08/24/dsk/feed/ 97 Sex charges dropped against DSK, not in effect yet http://www.salon.com/2011/08/23/us_strauss_kahn_assault_4/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/23/us_strauss_kahn_assault_4/#comments Tue, 23 Aug 2011 16:37:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/08/23/us_strauss_kahn_assault_4 Dominique Strauss-Kahn says that the past months have been "a nightmare" for him and his family and that they're looking forwarding to returning home.

In his first public statement since he was charged with sexually assaulting a hotel maid, Strauss-Kahn thanked supporters and said was grateful to the prosecutor for agreeing to dismiss the case.

A judge on Tuesday said he would dismiss the charges against the former head of the International Monetary Fund, pending an appeal by the accuser to appoint a special prosecutor.

Judge Michael Obus earlier Tuesday denied the request for a special prosecutor that would have continued the case, but the maid's attorney is appealing the decision.

If an appeals court denies the request, the case is dismissed and Strauss-Kahn is free to leave the United States.

Wearing a dark gray suit, blue shirt and a navy and gold striped tie, Strauss-Kahn appeared resolute during the brief appearance in Manhattan State Supreme Court. He smiled and shook hands with an audience member as his wife, the journalist Anne Sinclair, sat nearby. They left court without speaking to reporters.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/08/23/us_strauss_kahn_assault_4/feed/ 13 Prosecutors seek to dismiss Strauss-Kahn charges http://www.salon.com/2011/08/22/us_strauss_kahn_assault_3/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/22/us_strauss_kahn_assault_3/#comments Mon, 22 Aug 2011 21:34:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/08/22/us_strauss_kahn_assault_3 New York City prosecutors asked a judge Monday to dismiss all criminal charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn because they aren't sure beyond a reasonable doubt that the hotel maid who created a cross-continental sensation by accusing him of sexual assault is telling the truth.

The Manhattan district attorney's office said in court papers that the accuser, Nafissatou Diallo, repeatedly gave false information to investigators and grand jurors about her life, her past and her actions following her encounter with the French diplomat.

"In virtually every substantive interview with prosecutors, despite entreaties to simply be truthful, she has not been truthful on matters great and small," the lawyers wrote.

Diallo, and her attorney, Kenneth Thompson, met briefly with representatives of the Manhattan district attorney's office to discuss the decision not to proceed with the prosecution. Thompson didn't say what had happened inside or reveal what his client was told, but he recited a short statement condemning prosecutors for their handling of the case.

"Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has denied the right of a woman to get justice in a rape case," he said. "He has not only turned his back on this innocent victim. But he has also turned his back on the forensic, medical and other physical evidence in this case."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/08/22/us_strauss_kahn_assault_3/feed/ 13 Maid sues Strauss-Kahn over NYC hotel encounter http://www.salon.com/2011/08/08/us_strauss_kahn_assault_2/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/08/us_strauss_kahn_assault_2/#comments Mon, 08 Aug 2011 20:46:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/08/08/us_strauss_kahn_assault_2 A hotel maid who accuses ex-International Monetary Fund boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault sued him Monday, seeking unspecified damages as a result of what she calls the "violent and sadistic" attack in a room at the upscale Sofitel hotel.

Lawyers for the maid, Guinean immigrant Nafissatou Diallo, wrote in the lawsuit that Strauss-Kahn "intentionally, brutally and violently sexually assaulted Ms. Diallo and in the process humiliated, degraded, violated and robbed Ms. Diallo of her dignity as a woman."

The lawsuit says Strauss-Kahn injured her shoulder, bruised her vagina, tore her pantyhose and violently grabbed the back of her head during the attack.

The lawsuit, filed in state court in the Bronx, accuses Strauss-Kahn of acting like a common criminal afterward, fleeing the midtown Manhattan hotel so quickly that he left behind traces of his semen, along with bloody tissues.

"In his haste to flee the scene of a crime, he rushed out of the hotel with toothpaste smeared on the outside of his mouth and was looking over his shoulders," the lawsuit said.

A lawyer for Strauss-Kahn didn't immediately respond to phone message seeking comment on the lawsuit Monday.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/08/08/us_strauss_kahn_assault_2/feed/ 12 Lawyer: Strauss-Kahn maid’s remarks misportrayed http://www.salon.com/2011/07/28/us_strauss_kahn_assault/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/28/us_strauss_kahn_assault/#comments Thu, 28 Jul 2011 12:47:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/07/28/us_strauss_kahn_assault The hotel maid accusing Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sex assault has been wrongfully portrayed as a money-grubbing opportunist in accounts of her recorded remarks to an incarcerated friend, her lawyer said Wednesday after they reviewed the tapes during a nearly eight-hour meeting with prosecutors.

The tapes also established that housekeeper Nafissatou Diallo recounted the attack to the man during their first conversation, a day after the alleged attack -- showing, her lawyer said, that her focus was on what had happened to her, not on the former International Monetary Fund leader's wealth or stature.

"Information has been put out there about Ms. Diallo that now I know was false. She never was scheming to take DSK's money, and that's a fact," said her attorney, Kenneth Thompson, referring to Strauss-Kahn by his initials. Diallo herself didn't speak to reporters, and the Manhattan District Attorney's office declined to comment on the meeting.

The marathon session marked the 32-year-old's first meeting with prosecutors since they said July 1 they had doubts about her credibility because she hadn't been truthful about her background or what she did right after the May 14 encounter. Strauss-Kahn denies the charges, and his lawyers are calling for the case to be dismissed.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/28/us_strauss_kahn_assault/feed/ 9 Prosecutor mum on Strauss-Kahn maid’s public tales http://www.salon.com/2011/07/26/us_strauss_kahn_assault_accuser/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/26/us_strauss_kahn_assault_accuser/#comments Tue, 26 Jul 2011 12:48:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/07/26/us_strauss_kahn_assault_accuser The top prosecutor handling the sexual assault case against former International Monetary Fund leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn wouldn't talk Monday after the hotel maid at the center of it made the unusual move of going public with her story.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr.'s office refused repeated attempts to discuss the case, which has grown shaky in recent weeks after questions about the credibility of the maid, who claims Strauss-Kahn forced her to perform oral sex.

Hotel housekeeper Nafissatou Diallo's interviews aired on ABC's "Good Morning America" and in a Newsweek cover story.

"I want justice," Diallo told ABC News. "I want him to go to jail."

With her interviews, the 32-year-old Guinean immigrant, prosecutors' star witness, ripped off the veil of privacy that authorities had kept around her. Prosecutors have provided her with housing and paid her daily expenses to keep her from the media maelstrom.

She defied prosecutors' conventional wisdom about accusers speaking publicly before trial -- it's generally seen as providing defense lawyers material to mine for contradictions and questions. Her move could widen a rift between prosecutors and their key witness, who hasn't spoken with them since late June while her lawyer called for a special prosecutor after the district attorney's office said it had developed doubts about her trustworthiness.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/26/us_strauss_kahn_assault_accuser/feed/ 6 DSK maid goes public http://www.salon.com/2011/07/25/dsk_maid_diallo_speaks_out/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/25/dsk_maid_diallo_speaks_out/#comments Mon, 25 Jul 2011 15:26:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/07/25/dsk_maid_diallo_speaks_out Although the French media disclosed Nafissatou Diallo's name weeks ago, in the American press she has been known only as "Dominique Strauss-Kahn's accuser" or the "DSK maid" -- until now.

Guinean-born Diallo, who goes by "Nafi," spoke out about her sexual assault charges against the former IMF chief, first in a lengthy Newsweek interview and then in an interview with ABC's Robin Roberts, which aired Monday on "Good Morning America."

"I want him to go to jail. I want him to know there are some places you cannot use your power, you cannot use your money," Diallo told Newsweek. She repeated a similar sentiment to Roberts.

ABC's Roberts called Diallo's media blitz "an unusual and risky move." But Diallo and her team are trying to regain control over the narrative after several weeks of stories in which her background and credibility have been questioned. "Because of him they call me a prostitute," Diallo told ABC.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/25/dsk_maid_diallo_speaks_out/feed/ 17 When is violent sex OK? http://www.salon.com/2011/07/19/consent_2/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/19/consent_2/#comments Tue, 19 Jul 2011 22:50:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life//feature/2011/07/19/consent The latest allegation in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn saga has sex educators worried. Some fear it delivers a dangerous message about rough sex and consent.

The French weekly L'Express reports that Anne Mansouret -- the mother of Tristane Banon, the journalist accusing the former IMF chief of attempted rape -- told Parisian investigators that she had sex with DSK three years before the alleged incident with her daughter. (Cue classy quips about how IMF really "stands for International Mother F---er.")

Mansouret, according to the newspaper, described to officials sex that was "consensual but clearly brutal." L'Express reported that she told authorities Strauss-Kahn behaved like an "obscene" (or "lewd," depending on your translation) soldier. The newspaper also claims that she "describes DSK as a predator who isn't looking to please but to take, and behaves like an obscene boor. Sexual lust makes him want to dominate."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/19/consent_2/feed/ 41 DSK case is no “victory for justice” http://www.salon.com/2011/07/05/dsk_case_is_no_victory/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/05/dsk_case_is_no_victory/#comments Tue, 05 Jul 2011 17:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/07/05/dsk_case_is_no_victory Rumor has it that New York City prosecutors are preparing to drop the charges against former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Last week, officials went to court to loosen the tight restrictions placed on Strauss-Kahn during a bail proceeding last month, citing new evidence that his accuser, a maid at the luxury Sofitel Hotel in Manhattan, had lied about several aspects of her life and her actions on the day of the alleged rape. While all the physical evidence points to a sexual encounter of some kind, it has devolved into a "he said, she said" case, unlikely to stand up in court.

The outcry has been predictable: The rich get no respect! Americans are prudes! Immigrant women lie about rape to stay in the country! She's a hooker! Why, we should give poor ole DSK the French presidency just to make up for all his suffering.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/05/dsk_case_is_no_victory/feed/ 132 Strauss-Kahn to make slander claim against accuser http://www.salon.com/2011/07/04/strauss_kahn_france_1/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/04/strauss_kahn_france_1/#comments Mon, 04 Jul 2011 16:44:53 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/07/04/strauss_kahn_france_1 Lawyers for Dominique Strauss-Kahn say they will file a slander complaint against a writer who accuses the former International Monetary Fund head of sexually assaulting her in 2002.

Tristane Banon, 31, says she plans to file a criminal complaint Tuesday accusing Strauss-Kahn of trying to rape her in 2002.

Strauss-Kahn's lawyers say in a statement Monday that Strauss-Kahn "has always said that the incident described by Ms Banon since 2007 is imaginary."

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

PARIS (AP) -- A French novelist will file a complaint on Tuesday accusing Dominique Strauss-Kahn of attempted rape, her lawyer said, raising the prospect of a new sex assault investigation starting just as the U.S. case against the former International Monetary Fund chief falters.

The announcement threw Strauss-Kahn's legal situation in his home country into question, and injected fresh uncertainty into a national debate about whether he will be able to return to his political career and enter the 2012 presidential race.

A sexual assault case against Strauss-Kahn in New York was badly weakened last week by prosecutors' publicly expressing doubts about the credibility of the hotel maid who accused him of forcing her to perform oral sex.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/04/strauss_kahn_france_1/feed/ 14 Frenchwoman accuses Strauss-Kahn of attempted rape http://www.salon.com/2011/07/04/strauss_kahn_france/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/04/strauss_kahn_france/#comments Mon, 04 Jul 2011 13:37:11 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/07/04/strauss_kahn_france The lawyer for a French novelist says she will file a lawsuit accusing former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of attempted rape.

Lawyer David Koubbi told The Associated Press that Tristane Banon will file the suit Tuesday in Paris.

Banon has described an encounter several years ago in which Strauss-Kahn allegedly assaulted her.

Strauss-Kahn was arrested in New York in May on charges that he tried to rape a hotel maid. Strauss-Kahn, who denied wrongdoing, was released without bail last week after questions emerged about the maid's credibility.

Koubbi had said in the past that they would not file a lawsuit until the American trial was finished. He said Monday that they had decided to move forward now instead of waiting.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

PARIS (AP) -- From sidewalk cafes to political party headquarters, France was consumed Monday by the question of whether the sudden weakening of the sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn would revive his hopes of running for president.

The country was split on whether it wanted him back in public life: two polls showed an almost even division between those who thought he should return, and those who believed his political career was over.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/04/strauss_kahn_france/feed/ 7 In Strauss-Kahn case, DA weighs limited options http://www.salon.com/2011/07/03/us_imf_leader_assault_future/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/03/us_imf_leader_assault_future/#comments Sun, 03 Jul 2011 19:18:09 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/07/03/us_imf_leader_assault_future At first, prosecutors said their sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn was growing more formidable by the day. Six weeks later, they said his accuser's history of lying raised major red flags, but they weren't dropping the case, at least for now.

With the former International Monetary Fund leader freed from house arrest because the case has weakened, prosecutors aren't saying what their next move may be.

Some legal experts say prosecutors will all but have to abandon the case because of the damage to the accuser's overall credibility, even if they believe Strauss-Kahn attacked the woman, a housekeeper at a New York City hotel where he was staying. Still, at least one former high-level prosecutor thinks the case isn't doomed.

For now, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. is saying only that prosecutors will keep investigating "until we have uncovered all relevant facts.

"Our commitment to the truth and the facts will govern how we proceed," he said in a statement Friday.

Prosecutors have a number of options, including going ahead with the current charges or reducing them.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/03/us_imf_leader_assault_future/feed/ 3 French split on return to politics for DSK http://www.salon.com/2011/07/03/eu_france_strauss_kahn/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/03/eu_france_strauss_kahn/#comments Sun, 03 Jul 2011 14:00:52 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/07/03/eu_france_strauss_kahn A new poll indicates that French people are divided over whether Dominique Strauss-Kahn should re-enter French politics after the weakening of the sexual assault case against the former International Monetary Fund chief.

Forty-nine percent of those surveyed in the Harris Interactive poll for French newspaper Le Parisien responded 'yes' to the question "Without prejudging his innocence or guilt, do you want DSK to come back to the French political scene one day?"

Forty-five percent said 'no' and six percent didn't answer the question, according to the poll published Sunday in Le Parisien. The agency asked a demographically representative group of 1,000 people 18 years old and older to fill out the July 1-2 online survey. No margin of error was provided.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/03/eu_france_strauss_kahn/feed/ 3 Accuser’s lies jeopardize DSK case, experts say http://www.salon.com/2011/07/02/us_imf_leader_assault_5/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/02/us_imf_leader_assault_5/#comments Sat, 02 Jul 2011 13:20:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/07/02/us_imf_leader_assault_5 The hotel maid who accused former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault may have inflicted fatal damage on her own case by lying to prosecutors about her life story and what she did in the moments after the suspected attack, legal experts said.

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office revealed Friday that the 32-year-old woman had committed a host of minor frauds to better her life in the U.S. since arriving in the country seven years ago, including lying on immigration paperwork, cheating on her taxes, and misstating her income so she could live in an apartment reserved for the poor.

In a letter to Strauss-Kahn's lawyers, prosecutors also said she had misrepresented what she did immediately after the alleged attack by Strauss-Kahn -- instead of fleeing his luxury suite to a hallway and waiting for a supervisor, she went to clean another room and then returned to clean Strauss-Kahn's suite before reporting the encounter.

That change in her story, and the revelations about her past, wasn't enough to kill the case entirely, but prosecutors acknowledged their position had been shaken, and agreed to a defense request that Strauss-Kahn be freed immediately from house arrest.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/02/us_imf_leader_assault_5/feed/ 48 Strauss-Kahn free from house arrest; charges stand http://www.salon.com/2011/07/01/us_imf_leader_assault_4/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/01/us_imf_leader_assault_4/#comments Fri, 01 Jul 2011 16:27:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/07/01/us_imf_leader_assault_4 Former International Monetary Fund leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn walked out of court free on bail Friday after prosecutors said an extensive background investigation of the hotel housekeeper accusing him of sexual assault gave them pause.

Strauss-Kahn had been under pricey house arrest for weeks in a ritzy Manhattan loft on $6 million in cash and bond. The charges, which include attempted rape, have not been reduced, but the move signals that prosecutors do not believe the accusations are as ironclad as they once seemed.

The 32-year-old hotel maid accused Strauss-Kahn of chasing her through his luxury suite in May, trying to pull down her pantyhose and forcing her to perform oral sex.

"It is a great relief," said Strauss-Kahn's attorney, William Taylor, adding that the case underscores "how easy it is for people to be charged with serious crimes and for there to be a rush to judgment."

"It is so important in this country that people, especially the media, refrain from judgment until the facts are all in," he said.

The accuser's attorney did not back down on the seriousness of the charges.

"From Day One she has described a violent sexual assault that Dominique Strauss-Kahn committed against her," attorney Ken Thompson said.

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