Is the Head of the IMF a Sex Criminal?

If charges against him are dropped, DSK's future on the French political scene still seems somewhat murky, not just because of this legal case, but also because, as a result of this case, the French learned a lot about his past behaviors toward other women, and that affects their view of him

If this woman can be proven to have given an intentionally false account, under oath, at the grand jury hearing, she would face several years in jail for perjury. She could also be deported back to Guinea. Meanwhile, that is not so far the case.

Olivia Cattan, president of , a French women's rights organization, tells the Daily Beast that her group avoided focusing specifically on Strauss-Kahn precisely because it knows cases can fall apart as this one may. It was more important, she says, to explore . And on that score, Cattan says, there were positive signs in the seven weeks since Strauss-Kahn's arrest.
“I think women were feeling more free to speak,” Cattan said. But media reactions today don't bode well. Watching politicians and journalists trade reactions on TV this morning, “I got the impression that he could came back into the presidential race, “she says. “And it's a bit curious because there were quite a few lips loosened [on Strauss-Kahn since his arrest], journalists who said they were strongly flirted with, etc.,” Cattan notes, “So people will say, it's strong flirting, and in the end not so bad and doesn't make him a rapist or someone aggressive. I think it will be forgotten. And France is perfectly capable of accepting his candidacy if he wanted to run.”

So you have both the GJ transcripts and all the evidence gathered against Ophelia right?? Just an other load of garden variety Firefly bullshit, which you dish up on A2K constantly.

The maid's lawyer Kenneth Thompson gives an unexpected half-hour speech to cameras after the hearing claiming it was the maid who admitted "problems" with her asylum application, that she still maintains she was sexually assaulted by Dominique Strauss-Kahn and is prepared to waive her anonymity to give the full details of the alleged attack. She is still believed to be under police protection
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/dominique-strauss-kahn/8610568/Dominique-Strauss-Kahn-bail-hearing-live.html

Strauss-Kahn will face accuser, maid's attorney Kenneth Thompson says
Submitted by Anissa Ford on 2011-07-01

Minutes after Dominque Strauss-Kahn was released on his own recognizance, Kenneth Thompson, attorney for the maid that has accused Strauss-Kahn and ousted his leadership position at the IMF, accused the New York DA Cyrus Vance and prosecutors of selling out their victim and client, a Guinean hotel maid.

Thompson accused the prosecution of trying to dismiss this case. Thompson agreed with questioning reporters that the victim’s credibility is important, but said it’s more important to remember that she ran away from Strauss-Kahn’s room spitting on walls in disgust after what took place in the room. Police were called and the spit was collected as DNA evidence.

Thompson says forensic evidence backs the maid’s story. Thompson said the piece in the New York Times that discredits the maid is information that the maid voluntarily gave to prosecutors and the district attorney.

Telephone records say that the maid spoke with a man in jail about the benefits of prosecuting Strauss-Kahn. Thompson said that the telephone call, even though he hasn’t heard it, reiterates that the woman was attacked and that her story remains the same on the phone with the convict and to the grand jury and the DA. Thompson adamantly restated that the woman was attacked against her will and what she said on the phone to the man in prison reaffirms that.

Thompson pointed to physical evidence in the case: the woman’s bruised vagina, torn ligament, and torn stockings and DNA after her encounter with Strauss-Kahn. Thompson said all of this evidence makes it imperative for the District Attorney to prosecute the case for the victim as well as for all women victims of sexual assault.

Thompson admitted that the woman gave false information about her asylum application. Thompson said she is a victim of female genital mutilation. She was concerned that her daughter would be a female genital mutilation victim so she came to the US because of the great promise of this country. Thompson said that’s why she lied about her asylum application. The woman also lied about a gang rape as part of her asylum process. But again, the woman brought for this woman voluntarily. The maid is also said to have lied on her income taxes claiming a friend's child as one of her dependents.

Thompson also said that the day of the incident, Strauss-Kahn was allowed to sit in police headquarters for five hours. During that time, Strauss-Kahn wasn’t interviewed by detectives and didn’t ask for a lawyer until five hours after he’d been detained, the way other suspects would have been interviewed. Thompson also reported that the accuser’s 15 year-old daughter told him that prosecutors had mistreated her mother in interrogation by yelling and screaming at her and telling her to "get out of here."

Thompson said the DA is preparing this case for dismissal rather than a court hearing. He also said that the maid won’t go into hiding and will come forward to accuse Dominque Strauss-Kahn in the event the case doesn’t go to trial. Cyrus Vance Jr., Manhattan's DA, is expected to retort to Thompson's sonorous accusations shortly.
http://www.huliq.com/10178/strauss-kahn-will-face-accuser-maids-attorney-kenneth-thompson-says

My first response to the apparent collapse of the attempted rape case against former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was that it was a bad day for women.
But it wasn't
women in general who apparently failed to investigate the case thoroughly enough to learn what we understand will soon be revealed by prosecutors - that DSK's accuser was not a credible witness, had made and recanted rape charges against others in the past, had criminal ties, and discussed possible personal benefits with someone who ran at least $100,000 through the Sofitel maid's bank account during the past year.
Drug deals and money laundering are said to loom large in DSK's defense as well.
Not contested was the DNA sample that proved the likely act of oral copulation between the powerful French political leader and a random hotel employee, putting his party's future into jeopardy only a few weeks after he'd publicly suggested that he could easily be extorted based upon his reckless sexual conduct.
Here are the questions I believe we should be asking ourselves at this juncture.

what were the multiple failures at every level of the justice system that resulted in a prosecution based upon the testimony of a witness apparently unable to give a coherent narrative of the crime allegedly committed

what role did DSK's high profile and flight risk play in his dramatic arrest, brief imprisonment on Rikers Island and subsequent house arrest in Manhattan (think Roman Polanski)

does this case reveal chronic injustices in the particular institutions involved - which should be investigated and remedied - or a specific injustice and, if so, why in this case

should all of us - press and commentators alike - be more skeptical of prosecutorial claims like those publicly announced in this instance

As to DSK himself, I'd say that any politician who believes he can be extorted because he cannot resist strange should seek treatment before asking the public to trust him with their welfare.

So having an affair outside his married is the only thing he was found to had done not mistreating women.

In a high-paced day in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn alleged sex attack and rape case, District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. released a letter his office sent to the defense team indicating that the alleged victim and accuser lied consistently, leaving the prosecution's case on the border of collapse. After incriminating reports in the media connecting her to drug traffickers and money launderers, the accuser's attorney came out with graphic descriptions of her injuries, calling many of the accusations leveled against her lies and reiterating that she had been raped.
With her credibility practically decimated, the 32-year-old chambermaid from Guinea admitted she lied to the Grand Jury about the sequence of events after the supposed sex attack by former IMF chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, or DSK. (Read DSK Case Hangs From A Thread: Accuser Connected To Drug Dealers And Money Launderers).
While she had originally claimed that after the attack by DSK she “fled to an area of the hallway of the [Sofitel’s] 28 floor,” where she waited until Strauss-Kahn left and then contacted her supervisor, the D.A.’s office claims she has admitted that that was not the case.
After the supposed attack in suite 2806, the chambermaid actually “proceeded to clean a nearby room and then returned to Suite 2806 and began to clean that suite before she reported the incident to her supervisor.” The victim/accuser had, under oath, described the fake sequence of events to the Grand Jury.

what were the multiple failures at every level of the justice system that resulted in a prosecution based upon the testimony of a witness apparently unable to give a coherent narrative of the crime allegedly committed

I like to see myself as something of a skeptic. Give me a news flash; I think “First reports are always wrong.” Tout the findings of an expert report; I wonder “What do the dissenters say?” Repeat a statistic that everyone knows is accurate, and I think; “Interesting. If true.” But like almost everyone else on this side of the pond, I believed the maid.

I didn’t believe her because I thought that women never lie about rape. I know they do. I didn’t believe it because the incident unfolded in a way that fit a familiar narrative about powerful men and the helpless women in their path. In my experience, women can be manipulative and controlling even when they’re not the ones in power. No, I believed the story because there was DNA, because DSK had a history of sexual harassment, and because of credible reports of the maid’s despair and terror when recounting what had happened.

Or so I told myself. But if I’m being completely honest, I have to admit I was swayed by another narrative. A political refugee, a poor, struggling immigrant from Guinea accuses a French big shot, the head of an elite international organization, of rape. In the United States, no one is impressed by him. He and his high faluntin’ are incensed that he is treated as a common criminal. But yes, in America even Dominique Strauss Kahn has to wear handcuffs! I admit it; like a lot of people I liked that story. I wanted it to be true.

Psychologists call this “confirmation bias.” All of us have stories in our minds that epitomize the way we believe the world works. When something happens in the news, we quickly seize on it as confirmation of our favorite narrative. This is part of what my colleague Susannah Breslin was getting at in our lightning rod of a post; “Why Blogs for Women are Bad for Women.” Conservatives, libertarians, socialists, anarchists, Christians, atheists all have their narratives that shape their reaction to the world– and so do feminists. On a lot of feminist blogs, Michelle Bachman or Sarah Palin said something stupid. Drop everything and tweet! Sneer about it over drinks with friends! Don’t hesitate to believe the Duke accuser when she cries “rape.” Grab every report or study that purports to show discrimination against women, and run with it! It has to be true! Meanwhile, when there is possible counter evidence, put your fingers in your ears and sing; “la,la,la, I can’t hear you.” Or just snark very loudly.

Clearly, one can be a con artist and still be the victim of a crime, but I have no idea what happened in that 3000 dollar a night Sofitel suite. Neither does anyone else. Still, the whole affair does prove the truth of one narrative : the founders were right that people should be considered innocent until they are proven guilty. Even when our own favorite stories insist otherwise.

There was no failure of the justice system at any level of this case. The fact that the D.A. unearthed this info about their own witness demonstrates that.

"The DA's office has concluded she materially misled the grand jury," said a source close to the case. "The case has gone to hell. It's a wreck."

Thompson dismissed the reports of her involvement with drug dealers as "a lie."

A perjury charge against the accuser is a possibility - but what actually happened in the hotel room may forever remain a he-said-she-said, the sources said.

"The end is going to be soon - whether it's this week or next week, the case is not sustainable," the source said.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2011/07/01/2011-07-01_dominique_strausskahn_will_walk_out_of_court_without_bail_as_sex_assault_case_cr.html#ixzz1QshxQK7L

And even now that mother ****** Vance has not dropped the charges..this is not justice

But prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon said the case against the defendant would continue.

"The fact of a sexual encounter was and is corroborated by forensic evidence," she said.

The attorney for the woman whose allegations were at the center of the high-profile case insisted his client was telling the truth.

"It is obvious that this woman made some mistakes, but that doesn't mean she is not a rape victim," said lawyer Ken Thompson.

"From day one, she has described a violent sexual assault that Dominique Strauss-Kahn committed against her," Thompson said. "She has described that sexual assault many times, to prosecutors and to me, and she has never once changed a single thing about that encounter."

He added that the woman planned to go public with her identity in the near future.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2011/07/01/2011-07-01_dominique_strausskahn_will_walk_out_of_court_without_bail_as_sex_assault_case_cr.html#ixzz1QshxQK7L

fact DSK was found to have excercised "poor judgment" in having an affair with a subordinate

Bill Gate and DSK is in the same bad judgment boat.

The Legal Fallout of DSK's Lucky Break
Adam Martin

The Atlantic's Steve Clemons argued today that Strauss-Kahn wasn't given a fair shake in terms of the American justice principle that a suspect is presumed innocent until he or she is proven guilty.

But by the same token, it's important not to immediately discount the accuser in this case. Of the four main points that The Times' sources say speak to her credibility, which Ray Gustini outlined here yesterday, only one directly relates to the case against Strauss-Kahn: "The woman had a phone conversation with an incarcerated man within a day of her encounter with Mr. Strauss-Kahn in which she discussed the possible benefits of pursuing the charges against him. The conversation was recorded." And that phone call happened after the alleged attack, which shows the accuser may have seen a potential profit in the situation, but it doesn't show any premeditated fraud. In addition, The Times notes, "forensic tests found unambiguous evidence of a sexual encounter between Mr. Strauss-Kahn, a French politician, and the woman." Whether that encounter was forced, as the charges against Strauss-Kahn allege, or was perhaps consensual, as Strauss-Kahn's defense has suggested previously, is still, at this point, a matter for the court to decide.
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2011/07/legal-fallout-dsks-lucky-break/39501/