Tag Archives: nafissatou diallo

“We couldn’t tell the jury that she kept lying to us but that they should believe her.”

That’s an anonymous official speaking to The New York Times regarding the case against Dominique Strauss Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fun who was forced to step down three months ago after he was accused of sexual assault by a New York City hotel maid. The 33-year-old housekeeper, Nafissatou Diallo, claimed that on May 14, DSK forced her to perform oral sex on him when she arrived to clean his room at the Sofitel Hotel; he has insisted the two had a consensual sexual liaison and insinuated rather slanderously that she is a prostitute. The maid’s ripped stockings and DNA from DSK were seen as damning physical evidence against him.

But in the weeks following the alleged attack, during which DSK resigned from the IMF, it came to light that Diallo had lied on her asylum application from her home country of Guinea and repeated those lies to investigators. No one has accused Diallo of lying about the details of the alleged assault in the Sofitel, but even her legal team seems to agree a jury won’t see her as trustworthy and therefore the case can’t be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Tomorrow, prosecutors are expected to announce charges against DSK will be dropped. [UPDATE: Aroudn 4p.m. EST this afternoon, news outlets began reporting prosecutors would ask a judge that "some or all" of the charges would be dropped. — NPR] Keep reading »