Dominique Strauss-Kahn: Countdown to Dismissal
Posted on Tue Jul 05, 2011 at 08:43:59 AM EST
Tags: Dominque Strauss-Kahn (all tags)
The Wall St. Journal and the New York Post are reporting the DA's office is likely to drop charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn at or before his July 18 court date, due to the accuser's credibility issues and prosecutors' doubts as to whether a crime was committed.
There are new details about the accuser's actions after the encounter and how she encountered her supervisor. The WSJ reports:[More...]
The woman also told prosecutors she hadn't hidden in a hallway after her encounter with Mr. Strauss-Kahn, which occurred around noon, but had continued to clean before reporting the alleged attack to her supervisor, said the prosecutors' court filing on Friday.
According to officials familiar with the situation, the maid never called her supervisor after the alleged incident but resumed cleaning a nearby room she had started earlier. She then returned to clean Mr. Strauss-Kahn's room, they said, and ran into her supervisor when she went to get fresh sheets.
The accuser has also provided investigators with details about a second source of income (she had initially denied any work outside the Sofitel:
[T]he woman acknowledged she earned money by referring customers to ACN Inc., a marketing business based in Concord, N.C. Carolina that offers Internet, television and phone services.
An ACN spokesman confirmed the woman was an independent contractor who had "acquired some customers" between November 2010 and February 2011.
She initially denied having more than one cell phone but later admitted having a second phone, which she used to call her inmate/husband in jail in Arizona.
The WSJ also reports investigators were concerned not just about the large deposits into her bank account (which she attributed to having been made by the AZ inmate and his friends without her knowledge) but large withdrawals.
Authorities also are looking into transactions involving tens of thousands of dollars in deposits to an account in the woman's name made by men in different states, the official said. The maid said she had given the bank account number to the inmate in Arizona and wasn't aware whether any of the deposits related to illegal activities. Investigators are trying to track who made large withdrawals from the account, the official said.
The WSJ also reports details of her new allegation of rape in Guinea (she previously admitted the gang rape story on her asylum application was false but said she had been raped at some other time.) Now she says:
"She was taken from her store to a jail cell by some military people, and she was then raped by two of them" one after another, the woman said, according to an official familiar with her account. The woman added that "she never told anyone about that until this day."
The New York Post, as always, is less flattering to the accuser and sticking to its claim that this was about money and she got angry when DSK didn't pay her and was dismissive of her. It now says its information is from both defense and prosecution investigators.
Meanwhile, defense sources described a different scenario, in which DSK admittedly engaged with the maid in a consensual, sex-for-money exchange in his Sofitel suite, with no force involved -- and she turned against him only when he stiffed her.
...Multiple investigators for the defense and prosecution have confirmed that they believe the maid was turning tricks at the hotel, and prosecution sources have even accused her of continuing to "entertain" male visitors while in a DA safehouse.
Defense lawyers said a few days ago there was no discussion of money, nor was payment asked for or contemplated by DSK. They seem to be saying DSK had no idea she expected money or would be angry when he left the hotel without leaving any for her, so there's no reason for him to agree to plead to a misdemeanor prostitution charge.
As I opined here and several times, it sounds to me like the only one still under investigation is the accuser, as prosecutors decide to whether to charge her with lying to the grand jury, tax fraud, and/or immigration fraud.
I don't think there's any more investigating the DA's office can do as to the truth of the sexual assault allegations. It's her word against his, she has lied, and he has remained silent, other than to deny a forcible encounter. I suspect the reason the DA hasn't yet dismissed the charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn is because they are still investigating the accuser, and it's opened a big can of worms. And a lot of problems for her and her associates, whoever they are.
I'm convinced the DA's office will dismiss the charges against DSK, probably before July 18, the date of his next appearance. They probably want to do it in a nice, tidy way, with an explanation of why the accuser is or is not being charged for lying on her asylum application or to the grand jury. And that's the part they haven't figured out yet.
The Post reports there will be a meeting tomorrow between prosecutors and DSK's legal team.
I completely disagree with those who say the DA's office acted properly in arresting and indicting DSK before checking out the accuser's background. In a he-said/she-said case like this, where there is evidence of sex, and it is not inconsistent with a consensual encounter, there should be some corroboration. William Saletan at Slate has a good article on this aspect.
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