On May 15, Dominique Strauss-Khan (DSK) opened a new page in the maid assault case.
A year later after Sofitel hotel housekeeper Nafissatou Diallo accused him of sexual assault, the French politician and former director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is countersuing her and is demanding $1 million in compensation.
Last year, DSK was said to be in a good position to run for president in France for the left-wing Socialist Party. When the story broke, however, with day-by-day updates, he was compelled to resign as director of the IMF and set aside his presidential ambitions.
Coincidently, news of the countersuit broke on the same day socialist President Francois Hollande was inaugurated.
According to published reports in the Bronx court filing, DSK’s attorneys, including William W. Taylor III, Hugh Campbell and others, stated that DSK was considered to be “France’s next president.” They added: “As a direct result of her [Diallo’s] malicious and wanton false accusation, Mr. Strauss-Kahn suffered…substantial harm to his professional and personal reputation in the United States and throughout the world.”
According to AFP, the French national press agency, which has a copy of the 17-page plea document, DSK’s attorneys also affirmed that the sexual relations were “mutually consented by both Diallo and Strauss-Khan…without any violence.
They also claim that all these proceedings, including his imprisonment last year, have triggered “emotional distress ” to DSK. This, they say, is the reason why he is now asking for financial compensation.
Recalling DSK’s other sexual accusations, Douglas Wigdor, one of Diallo’s attorneys, said in a public statement, “This is yet another example that personifies Strauss-Kahn’s misogynistic attitude.
“After being accused of relentlessly pursuing Peggy Naggy, he was reported as apologizing for an error of judgment; after being accused of sexually assaulting Tristane Banon [a French journalist], he was reported as admitting that he tried to take her in his arms and kiss her on her mouth; after being accused of being involved in a prostitution ring, his lawyer was reported as defending his actions that he could not distinguish a naked prostitute from any other naked woman; and with respect to Ms. Diallo, after floating conspiracy theories, he has admitted to a moral failure that he has regretted every day and that he is not done regretting it,” Wigdor also added.
After the case was dismissed at the criminal trial in August, Diallo decided to sue DSK in civil court. In the first hearing of this civil proceeding, the French former politician is demanding for the dismissal of the case, using the argument that DSK has U.N. diplomatic immunity, which was made in 1947 for international leaders.
However, two weeks ago, Bronx Supreme Court Judge Douglas McKeon ruled that the immunity clause did not apply to DSK in this case and decided to continue the proceedings.
Wigdor said he is “entirely confident this latest desperate ploy will be swiftly rejected.”