Strauss-Kahn assembles crisis team to fight back

Source: Reuters

Faced with a legal and media onslaught, Dominique Strauss-Kahn is pulling together a crack team of investigators, former spies and media advisers to fight back against charges he sexually assaulted a hotel chambermaid.

The former IMF chief's advisers will have their work cut out for them, and they may have to use different approaches to handling his legal problems in the United States while trying to bolster his reputation in his native France and beyond.

This may be why the range of damage-control specialists being assembled is so diverse. People consulted or hired so far include ex-CIA spies, experienced New York criminal investigators and some of the best-connected public relations specialists in the French-speaking world.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110529/us_nm/us_strauss_kahn_advisers

pathetic.

Considering all the stories and crazy rumors that people are spreading, is it any surprise that he is hiring such a team?

Also, if he were to say 'i didn't rape the chambermaid' sincerely, would you accept that he is telling the truth or call him a liar?

the guy is most likely guilty... imo.

For one thing, four or five members of Sarkozy's cabinet have had to resign due to scandals this past year.

Strauss-Kahn was quite likely to unseat Sarkozy in the next election. Strauss-Kahn is running as a Socialist.

The political climate in France is quite adversarial at this time (as usual). With Sarkozy so tainted by political scandal, the scandal around Strauss-Kahn strikes a lot of people in France as just political payback.

We shall see.

I agree with Bernard Henri-Levy that it is unusual for the staff in very large hotels to enter suites as single individuals. Staff in those hotels usually work in teams. There is at the very least another maid checking out for her team members in a neighboring room. That is only one of the odd things about the story. Another is that it is rumored that another male hotel employee was in the suite and left the door open for the maid to come in. That meant she did not have to swipe her key card so that people could definitely state when she entered. Some on DU have suggested that a video would show the movement in the hall, but we have not heard about that. That is just guesswork like all the rest.

Were it not for the political environment in France and the world, no one would question the maid's story. The only reason she would accuse someone falsely would be for financial gain.

But the way this story has been introduced as if Strauss-Kahn had already been convicted even before the events happened makes me wonder who and what is really behind the story. The press has been exceptionally pro-victim here. Quite unusual.

well done... you would make a great trial lawyer for the guilty.

Were you in the room at the time of the events?

I'm not saying that the allegations against Strauss-Kahn are false. I'm just saying that we have not yet heard both sides of the story. Only then can we know for sure what the story is.

:puke:

consent.

such as France's equivalent of Karl Rove eg, and his publication 'Atlantico' , has been contradicted by the NYPD and by the actual timeline of events.

Such as the claim that there was DNA evidence on the day of his arrest. The NYPD has now stated clearly that no such information came from them or the prosecutor's office as claimed in the tabloids.

Other early claims that DSK left 'hastily' have also been debunked.

No one knows anything about this case other than the fact that charges have been made by one person against another. All the rest was noise.

Now the case will proceed through the legal system and the only credible sources will be statements from those directly involved, not claims made in the tabloids, either in France or here.

Considering the mountain of now debunked tabloid claims made from the first day in this case, it is not surprising that the defense will do all it can to correct those stories.

To find a jury that has not already been tainted with false information is essential to a fair trial.

(CBS/WCBS/AP) NEW YORK - DNA taken from former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn matches material on the uniform of a hotel maid who says he sexually assaulted her, two people familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press. The two people would not describe the material found on the shirt but said DNA matched a sample from Strauss-Kahn, who submitted to testing after his arrest more than a week ago. He denies the maid's allegations. Testing was being performed on other items, said the two people, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter and spoke to the AP on Monday on condition of anonymity.

Was it a hair. Was it something that was on her clothes because she touched his towel or some of the things he had touched? We really cannot know what this evidence is.

today. Most experts questioned those claims to begin with since DNA testing takes more than a day to get back several defense attorneys pointed out.

The NYPD spokesman has denied that this information was released to the press by them or, as claimed, to the French.

Police Deny Reports of Strauss-Kahn DNA Tests



For any major news media to publish such unsubstantiated gossip, is a disgrace. 'Two people who would not, could not do more than make a claim with nothing to back it up. DU has higher standards than that. At least we question things. Apparently our media does not.

If neither the prosecution nor the police released that story, something the Media should have checked before publishing it, then it was simply as thought, part of the smear campaign to throw as much dirt around hoping some of it would stick. The press should reveal the names of these 'two people' now, since it appears they were lying or repeating the lies of others.

No names, no credentials and no possible corroboration.

You cannot slight the reports as a whole over a very short period of time where information was incoherent. Never trust the media in the first day of reporting some significant event.

Even if the maid's story weren't plausible, and it sounds like the truth to me, women are coming out of the woodwork reporting previous situations that they were too intimidated to report - strength in numbers.

Sexual harassment, maybe, but actual rape victims?

in the day. His history is what it is. Now that he's finally found someone who didn't buckle, he can whistle dixie out his ass if he wants. What will come will be based on facts. He can assemble the three stooges but the science of forensics will hang him.

...within the hour of the incident and he was unable to control the situation. He was warned about this, the US justice system doesn't play around (in some ways our prison systems being profitable makes that all the more likely).

I don't know the sexual assault victim, of course, but I do know and appreciate the allure of money being dangled. The prospect is very hard for a lot of people to deny.

this has made me suspect that someone is orchestrating her efforts.

Normally, rape victims remain rather inconspicuous. Their claims don't usually meet with such unanimous applause. I am normally on the side of the alleged rape victim, but in this case, there is something off balance. I am very suspicious of the story that has been so widely disseminated. It may be true. I have no inside facts. I wasn't in that hotel room. But then, as I understand it, only two people were. And none of them post on DU. And none of them are members of the press.

I wonder whether members of the press have actually been permitted to question either the suspect or the alleged victim without a lot of constraints. This is after all a criminal case, not a publicity stunt, we hope.

Like chambermaids only work in pairs, and this garbage "Normally, rape victims remain rather inconspicuous".

The ONLY reason you want to believe this is a set up is the guy is from the Left.

Here are some facts for you-

"The maid's version of events, on the other hand, is quite plausible. At first, it seems a bit surreal, but once you find out about DSK's background, it all starts to make sense. "

DSK was well-known in France as a womanizer, one so pushy that his advances bordered on harrassment <1>.
When he was named chief of the IMF, he was warned by his colleagues that he had to be careful in the U.S., where sexual harrassment is taken more seriously than in France <1>.
DSK himself admitted that one of the three most important obstacles to his presidential candidacy was "les femmes" <2>.
A woman named Tristane Banon -- one of his daughter's friends -- has recently come forward and stated that he tried to rape her in 2002 <3>.
In 2008, at the IMF, he had an affair with one of his subordinates, Piroska Nagy -- the IMF found that he had made a "serious error of judgment", though they did not feel he had abused his position. Nagy, on the other hand, suggested that she had been put in a situation where she had little choice but to accept his advances <4>.
Now, we find out that he hired prostitutes in NYC who complained that he was "rough and angry". Various editorials and op-ed pieces in French newspapers have pretty much admitted that if the incident with the maid had happened in France, it would never have reached the media <5,6>.

It is therefore not a stretch to speculate that this guy had a huge sense of entitlement and could not imagine that he would get in trouble for sexually assaulting a black immigrant hotel maid in NYC.

Everything suggests that events happened exactly as the maid described them. The police likely recovered a ton of physical evidence to corroborate her claims. I only hope that he will be convicted and suffer the consequences of attacking someone much weaker and less powerful."

References:
<1> http://www.leparisien.fr/dsk-la-chute/dsk-seducteur-jus...
<2> http://m.sfr.fr/home/u/news/c/filinfo/s/politique/a/urn...
<3> http://www.liberation.fr/politiques/01012337844-tristan...
<4> http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2009/02/17/01003-2...
<5> http://www.liberation.fr/politiques/01012337647-primair...
<6> http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2008/10/18/01003-2...

uninformed attacks on him. He may be quite guilty as charged. But the fact is that we are getting our information from the news media. And as we on DU know, the news media is not at all reliable.

I just want to keep and open mind. That is the only way that we can protect our justice system. It is very easy for the government to paint people it does not like as evil and accept charges against them without questioning.

This usually happens to poor defendants. This time the defendant is rich. The rich can afford a defense. And when they successfully defend themselves, then you realize how badly we protect the rights of the poor who also should be entitled to an adequate defense.

A better example of what I am talking about can be seen in the contrast between the way the rich crooks in the banks and on Wall Street have been treated in the media and the courts with the way that poor crooks, say car thieves, are treated.

anyone even suggested waiting for actual evidence before hanging the accused. I remember it well, and I remember the insults thrown my way. And that does not deter me, and to her credit, the poster to whom you made your comment, from not rushing to judgement, from waiting for facts, not tabloid junk, before deciding whether or not someone is guilty. Anyone here today could be accused of a crime and if someone has the power and the money to do so, regardless of how innocent one may be, they can be made to look guilty.

I like our judicial system, at least I like the theory that no one is guilty until convicted, until they have had a chance to face their accusers in court.

Trial by Nancy Grace doesn't appeal to me.

What the commenter you responded to was defending, was due process, something that sounds great in theory, something we boast a lot about here, but rarely respected once the tabloids get hold of a story. The Duke case, and the numerous other cases overturned sometimes after decades by the Innocence Project should cause people to be more careful about coming to conclusions and/or allowing themselves to be emotionally manipulated by the media. But apparently it hasn't.

we should not question anything.

we should join together in the 5-minute hate of the perp.

anything less = heresy.

who calls himself a socialist (and heads the IMF!) over a working-class immigrant woman from Africa.

lol.

so predictable.

and some of us, when we know nothing and much of the tabloid reporting has already been debunked, choose to wait for actual evidence. A novel idea, I know.

What do you know about this case btw that makes you so certain the man is guilty? About THIS case, not his past, which is irrelevant to this case, as is hers. But what compelling evidence have you seen that has convinced you there is hardly any need for a trial?

then inssit no one on du know either, as you defend dks further, while suspecting the victims motives.

:grr:

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allow him to have a fair trial with all of the evidence presented before I jump to any conclusions.

call a liberal. He has a lot of political enemies and many of them have influence in the corporate media.

The French "Socialists" are like the Dems, Corporatist sellouts.

It is ghastly to hear this man described as a "leftist". If anything it shows just how far right French "socialists" have moved.

.... people here need to study up on the IMF. They are generally a cure that is worse than the disease.

Anyone who thinks the IMF is helping poor countries is sadly misinformed.

to "Corporatist Sellouts Underground."

the wealthy and well connected get treated much better and can afford a "crisis team" full of damage-control specialists.

disgusting
:mad:

legal recourse in this country. I would like everyone to have access to what the wealthy have, NOT deny them that access.

If such was the case, there would not be so many innocent people sitting in our jails and on death row. And I am sure that not one of them would not have used whatever resources they could to defend themselves when the government goes after them.

So you want guilty poor people to get off scott free? Wow.

who are close to her. How common is it to prohibit someone in her position from contacting family? Where is her support structure?

...and they want to try to invent an inconsistency between herself and her family side of things.

and DSK's people are also trying to buy off the victim's family in Africa with millions of dollars.

he brutally forced to suck his dick

man many on du can admire.

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