The hotel maid that accuses Dominique Strauss-Kahn of raping her in May 2011 in New York is heading to the public for backing, after prosecution sends the signal of plans to potentially ditch her. The woman who claims rape has been identified as Nafissatou Diallo and has gone public--speaking via Newsweek and ABC's "Good Morning America".
Simultaneously the idea circulates that prosecutors may eventually drop most, if not all of the charges against the Frenchman. Strauss-Kahn's attorneys are grumbling, meanwhile, that Diallo is conducting a media campaign against their client.
The hotel maid insists she's telling her side of the tale. It may be her only chance to keep the rape case against Strauss-Kahn alive. Nothing else is working, after prosecutors began leaking supposed 'doubts' to the media. Strauss-Kahn lawyers have dubbed the Nafissatou Diallo interviews "an unseemly circus", insinuating the hotel maid simply wants to inflame public opinion. She probably does. But that may be for very good reason. Diallo wants a trial, and wants her story known.
The hotel maid had originally closed doors to the media since Strauss-Kahn's May 14 arrest. But now the case against Strauss-Kahn is in limbo after Manhattan prosecutors have effectively worked to raise doubts about the housekeeper's general credibility. And it may have worked until now -- but the maid insists she's right, and apparently does not plan to let go that easily. Diallo's lawyer, Kenneth Thompson, has been criticizing prosecutors and publicly pressing them to pursue the rape case
Dominique Strauss-Kahn's defense team originally seemed to have proven successful in trashing credibility of the New York hotel maid who had accused him of sexual assault.
Former head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was suddenly released from house arrest -- all without bail -- after prosecutors in the rape case supposedly revealed a lack of confidence in the hotel maid's story. A theory of alleged phone calls popped up -- with claims the hotel maid called an Arizona prison inmate and expressed the possibility of financial gain related to the rape allegations: The exact words included the maid telling the other party "not to worry," that she knew what she was doing. Prosecutors claim that could mean the maid's looking for money. But it could just be fear -- even of retribution -- by the hotel maid's lawyers, worrying over whether the prosecution could lose the rape case. One of the chamber maid's lawyers, Kenneth Thompson, was quoted by BBC as stating: "We believe that he's [Cyrus Vance] afraid that he's going to lose this high-profile case."
It's a very solid fear to have. After all, you don't want to be the prosecutor that could lose a criminal case against one of the most powerful men in the world. It kind of cuts future job availability too.
If anyone believes the hotel maid's credibility has been lost or cut, no one's checked on Strass-Kahn lately -- or, at least, during all the craziness that had him locked behind bars. His only defense seemed to arrive from the most outlandish realm.
In Early June, European media outlets continued to distribute word of a secret report that was supposedly prepared for Russian Prime Minister Putin by the Federal Security Service (FSB). That report makes the claim that former International Monetary Fund (IMF) Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was charged and jailed in the United States for sex crimes not because the man actually perpetrated violent sex acts -- but rather on trumped-up charges by United States government officials who were supposedly covering up Strauss-Kahn's discovery of all gold tender as missing. Putin's FSB report says Strauss-Kahn supposedly found out that all gold tender, in the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, is supposedly "missing and/or unaccounted" for.
Straight out of a Russian spy novel, the FSB report claims that when Strauss-Kahn raised his "concerns" about the missing gold -- with American government officials close to President Obama -- he was in turn "contacted" by "rogue elements" within the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who provided him [Strauss-Kahn] "firm evidence" that all of the gold reported to be held by the US "was gone". Basically, the insinuation is that Strauss-Kahn uncovered a huge United States secret -- and was fleeing the country quickly, getting out before bad things happened to him. That's how he forgot his phone or chose to discard it. He didn't want to be tracked in case someone would harm him on his return to France.
Yeah, it's good stuff. Writers who are paying attention, take note: truth is stranger than fiction -- and can also make great fiction.
Just one month later, the criminal case against Strauss-Kahn, in New York, dramatically turned in his favor in July, his wife -- 62-year-old Anne Sinclair reportedly texted to friends: "Let's not forget those who spit in our face." That was followed with a reported second text: "We were right not to have any doubts!" If the texts are true, Sinclair may wish to be a bit wiser in something that could easily come back to bite her in the ass.
In fact it is already coming back to bite her in her ass, so Sinclair may wish to choose her words wisely: Strauss-Kahn may have been released in the U.S. for now, but he's not home-free yet. New York still may prosecute and the former French presidential hopeful. Strauss-Kahn's been ordered not to leave New York, and there was talk he wanted to get back into the race for French president -- but may have new legal troubles after the U.S. scandal. French officials have opened an investigation into attempted rape allegations against the man in France. A French writer says Strauss-Kahn attempted to sexually assault her ten years ago during an interview.
Still, although the prosecution's case seems to have weakened, there is the DNA evidence of the encounter, which indicates that at least an oral sexual act took place. And there are the hospital records that bolster the maid's testimony that Strauss-Kahn had forcefully groped her, leaving her crotch inflamed from his rough acts. But his defense team has maintained that the sexual act was consensual.
Whether or not the New York hotel maid is telling the truth holds far less significance than general reality -- a reality Anen Sinclair gets to live with. If the hotel maid is lying, she apparently had a reason to do so, like profiting from the not-so-secret knowledge that rape allegations against Strauss-Kahn are not exactly new. People typically concoct great lies only when it's profitable in some form. That's 'if' the hotel maid is actually lying -- and that remains to be seen.
It's not unrealistic to believe the United States or politicians might cut a deal to free Strauss-Kahn based on political motive alone. France's President, Nicolas Sarkozy, ranks among the most hated leaders of all time with the country's population. And Dominique Strauss-Kahn was slated to win the forthcoming French presidential race. It doesn't require a lot of tough thinking to realize the importance Strauss-Kahn could hold as President. It would be important to France -- and important to the U.S., particularly in an exchange of possible political favors that may be well-owed.