Strauss-Kahn's Wife Confirms Separation

PARIS—Just months into a new career as the editor of the French edition of The Huffington Post, and after 21 years of marriage, Ms. Sinclair moves on.

The wife of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former International Monetary Fund chief, acknowledged in a newspaper interview on Friday that the two have separated.

Anne Sinclair, a famous French television journalist who is now editor in chief of Le Huffington Post, the local version of the U.S. online news service, stood by Mr. Strauss-Kahn last year when he was arrested in New York on charges—which were subsequently dropped—of sexually assaulting a hotel maid.

Asked by French daily newspaper Le Parisien how she felt since breaking up with Mr. Strauss-Kahn, Ms. Sinclair said: "Very well, thank you....I am in good shape; I took some vacation; I work hard again."

An assistant to Ms. Sinclair confirmed the content of the interview. Anne Hommel, the assistant, declined to elaborate on whether the couple has filed for divorce. Mr. Strauss-Kahn's lawyers didn't return phone calls seeking comments.

Mr. Strauss-Kahn stepped down as IMF managing director in May 2011 after a New York hotel housekeeper said he had assaulted her. Mr. Strauss-Kahn denied the accusations. Criminal charges were later dropped.

Nafissatou Diallo, the maid, filed a civil lawsuit against Mr. Strauss-Kahn, seeking damages stemming from the alleged assault. Mr. Strauss-Kahn denied the accusations in the ongoing civil case, and in May filed a civil lawsuit of his own against Ms. Diallo, saying the claim was "false" and ruined his life, personally and professionally.

The New York scandal brought to a halt Mr. Strauss-Kahn's political aspirations at the time. The French Socialist had been preparing to run in this year's presidential election, in which rival Socialist François Hollande prevailed.

Accusations surrounding Mr. Strauss-Kahn's sexual behavior have remained in the spotlight in France. Earlier this year, French prosecutors launched a preliminary investigation into an accusation that he took part in a gang rape in the U.S. in 2010.

The accusations stem from a broader judicial investigation into an alleged prostitution ring based out of the northern French city of Lille—a case in which 63-year-old Mr. Strauss-Kahn faces preliminary charges of "aggravated pimping."

Strauss-Kahn's Accuser Nafissatou Diallo Speaks Out

The New York hotel maid who accused former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of attempting to rape her said in an interview that he appeared as a "crazy man" and attacked her when she entered his room. Nafissatou Diallo tells Robin Roberts that Strauss-Kahn should be sent to jail. 

Newsweek cover to be released July 25, 2011 shows Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the alleged victim in the case, Nafissatou Diallo in this handout image relea1sed to Reuters July 24, 2011. Diallo gave Newsweek and ABC News permission to identify her by name. Until now, Reuters had kept to the practice in the United States of protecting the identity of alleged rape victims. The New York hotel maid who accused former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of attempting to rape her said in an interview published on Newsweek's website on Sunday that he appeared as a "crazy man" and attacked her when she entered his room.

Newsweek's cover, featuring Nafissatou Diallo, the maid accusing Dominique Strauss-Kahn of assaulting her in a Manhattan hotel room. Diallo told Newsweek she wants the former IMF leader to go to jail.

This image provided by Newsweek shows the cover of the magazine's issue featuring Nafissatou Diallo, the maid accusing Dominique Strauss-Kahn of assaulting her in a Manhattan hotel room. Diallo tells Newsweek she wants the former IMF leader to go to jail. She alleges he sexually assaulted her while she was working at a Midtown hotel in May.

After arriving from Guinea in 2003, Diallo told Newsweek she spent years braiding hair before working at a bodega in New York City's Bronx borough. As a maid at the Sofitel hotel, she received $25 an hour plus tips.

Diallo said her husband in Guinea died of an illness but did not provide further details. Roughly two years after being raped by two soldiers in Conakry, the Guinean capital, she fled with her daughter, now 15, to the United States, where she said she has few close friends.

Following the alleged attack, Diallo spent weeks in protective custody, holed up in a hotel with her daughter.

"She's been in seclusion for over two months. She hasn't been able to take a walk in the park," her lawyer said.

French newspaper France Soir reported in a front page headline that David Koubbi, the lawyer for French writer Tristane Banon, who has accused Strauss-Kahn of a 2003 sexual assault, had met with Diallo. It added only that he "was impressed by her courage."

DSK accuser sues NY Post for "prostitute" report

(Reuters) - The hotel maid who accused former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault sued the New York Post and five of its journalists for libel on Tuesday for reporting that she was a prostitute.

Nafissatou Diallo, the 32-year-old Guinean immigrant accused the Post of publishing defamatory articles between July 2-4 "in an apparent desperate attempt to bolster its rapidly plunging sales."

The suit filed in Bronx state court seeks damages to be determined at trial for articles it said the Post knew were false or should have known were false before they were published.

A spokesman for the Post was not immediately available for comment.

On Friday prosecutors called into question the woman's credibility for a series of lies about her background including a false story about being gang-raped on her application for U.S. asylum.

The Post reported on Saturday that the Sofitel housekeeper "was doing double duty as a prostitute, collecting cash on the side from male guests." An article the following day reported that the housekeeper "continued to work as a prostitute in a Brooklyn hotel where she was stashed by prosecutors."

"All of these statements are false, have subjected the plaintiff to humiliation, scorn and ridicule throughout the world by falsely portraying her as a prostitute or as a woman who trades her body for money and they constitute defamation and libel per se," the suit said.

The case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn on the verge of collapse

The case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, 62 is on the verge of collapse as investigators have found holes in the credibility of the hotel housekeeper who said that he attacked her.

The sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn is on the verge of collapse as investigators have uncovered major holes in the credibility of the housekeeper who charged that he attacked her in his Manhattan hotel suite in May. The revelations are a stunning change of fortune for Mr. Strauss-Kahn, who was considered a strong contender for the French presidency before being accused of sexually assaulting the woman who went to clean his luxury suite at the Sofitel New York.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn (C) and his lawyers Benjamin Brafman (R) and William Taylor (L) during a hearing at Manhattan Criminal Court.

The woman told the authorities that she had gone to Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s suite to clean it and that he emerged naked from the bathroom and attacked her. The formal charges accused him of ripping her pantyhose, trying to rape her and forcing her to perform oral sex; his lawyers say there is no evidence of force and have suggested that any sex was consensual.

32-year-old Nafissatou Diallo

Since her initial allegation on May 14, the accuser has repeatedly lied, one of the law enforcement officials said.

• Seeking to profit: 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.
• Money Laundering: That man, the investigators learned, had been arrested on charges of possessing 400 pounds of marijuana. He is among a number of individuals who made multiple cash deposits, totaling around $100,000, into the woman’s bank account over the last two years. The deposits were made in Arizona, Georgia, New York and Pennsylvania.
• The investigators also learned that she was paying hundreds of dollars every month in phone charges to five companies. The woman had insisted she had only one phone and said she knew nothing about the deposits except that they were made by a man she described as her fiancé and his friends.
• Lied about previous rapes: In addition, one of the officials said, she told investigators that her application for asylum included mention of a previous rape, but there was no such account in the application. She also told them that she had been subjected to genital mutilation, but her account to the investigators differed from what was contained in the asylum application.
• Lied about her actions immediately after the alleged assault: She had said she fled the area, but later said she cleaned another room after Strauss-Kahn's:

Here are some New York Post covers from May 2011:

and July 1, 2011

Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigns; arrives for sex case bail hearing

NEW YORK — Facing charges that he tried to rape a hotel maid, former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn arrived at a New York court building Thursday for a bail hearing.


Strauss-Kahn's lawyers are asking that he be released on $1 million cash bail and placed under 24-hour home detention with electronic monitoring, court papers showed. A bail hearing is due to be held later Thursday.

IMF Press Release:

IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn Resigns

Press Release No. 11/187
May 18, 2011

Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn today informed the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of his intention to resign as Managing Director with immediate effect. Mr. Strauss-Kahn made the following statement in a formal letter of resignation to the Board:

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Board:

It is with infinite sadness that I feel compelled today to present to the Executive Board my resignation from my post of Managing Director of the IMF.

I think at this time first of my wife—whom I love more than anything—of my children, of my family, of my friends.

I think also of my colleagues at the Fund; together we have accomplished such great things over the last three years and more.

To all, I want to say that I deny with the greatest possible firmness all of the allegations that have been made against me.

I want to protect this institution which I have served with honor and devotion, and especially—especially—I want to devote all my strength, all my time, and all my energy to proving my innocence.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn

The Fund will communicate in the near future on the Executive Board’s process of selecting a new Managing Director. Meanwhile, Mr. John Lipsky remains Acting Managing Director.

BAIL CONDITIONS

• $1 million cash bail
• $5 million bond
• Home confinement to an undisclosed Manhattan address that has been rented by Strauss-Khan's wife
• 24-hour monitoring by guard Strauss-Khan is paying $200,000 a month.
• Electronic tag fitted on his ankle.
• Video cameras will also be installed in the house.
• Alarms will be fitted on the doors to stop him leaving.

The identity of the woman who claimed to have experienced sexual violence and attempted rape by IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK) is now revealed. Several French newspapers have released the identity of the servant Sofitel Hotelin Manhattan, New York, United States.

According to French media, Paris Match, the 32-year-old woman's name is Nafissatou Diallo.  The immigrant from Guinea, West Africa  has a 15-year-old daughter. According to Paris Match, the unmarried woman gave birth to her son at the age of 17.

France's media reacts to the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.