Anyone Remember the Dominique Strauss Kahn Scandal?

[PeterRS]

I know - it all happened ten years ago and is probably forgotten by most. I only bring it up as last night I watched a Netflix mini-series "Room 2806: The Accusation". I am very late in watching it as it was produced in 2020. But I found it fascinating, with the memories I have of that scandal jogged by the four episodes featuring most of the people who actually participated in the events. 

To recap. Dominique Strauss Kahn (referred to by all as DSK) was the brilliant Chairman of the International Monetary Fund who had helped steer the world through the 2008 financial crisis. An economist turned Socialist politician, he was the leading candidate to win the 2012 French Presidential election by beating the hugely unpopular incumbent Nicholas Sarkosy who is now serving a second term in jail over financial irregularities re that 2012 campaign. It was known that Sarkosy's party was up to dirty tricks against DSK. Although based in Washington, DSK had spent a night in New York prior to having lunch with one of his daughters and then a flight to Paris. The following day he would be meeting the German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In New York he stayed at the French-owned Sofitel. As a VVIP he was upgraded to the Presidential Suite on floor 28. Although the facts remain somewhat unclear and many internet sources are behind pay walls, there is enough information there to re-piece together much of the story. It is known that soon after arrival at the Sofitel he went out and spent several hours with a young lady. The following morning he made and received some calls on his 6 mobile phones. One was from a party worker in France to warn him about another dirty tricks campaign being mounted against him by Sarkosy's party.  He then called his wife in Paris asking her to call for their house in the luxury Place des Voges area to be electronically surveilled for bugs the following morning. He then started to pack his small trolley bag. Before leaving his room, he took a shower, dressed and was at check out by 12:30.

Floor map showing the Presidential Suite #2806 and another room #2820: from the New York Times

The scandal that quickly erupted concerns a room service maid on the 28th floor that morning. The Sofitel's security logged every time a key card was used to enter, but not when a door opened without a card - e.g. on exit. The maid, Ms. Diallo claims she entered the room to clean it just after midday. She claims she saw the occupant's luggage in the hallway. But she did not leave. She continued into the large suite. Once in the bedroom she saw a naked DSK coming through the corridor from the bathroom. She then alleges that he assaulted her sexually, forcing her to the floor and then giving him oral sex. The deed done, he left the suite with his bags, checked out and had lunch with his daughter. He then took a taxi to JFK where he waited for the 4:10pm overnight flight to Paris. But he had forgotten one of his phones and assumed it was at the hotel. He called the hotel and they agreed to send it over to the Air France lounge in time for his flight.

The maid took about an hour before reporting the incident. Hotel security called the police. No one had a clue where DSK might be, and had he seriously assaulted the maid, some assumed he had simply fled. As we know, he did not flee. He continued with his planned schedule and was taking the flight his assistant had booked for him some days earlier. Had he committed a crime it is surely unlikely he would have called the hotel to give it his location. The police proceeded to the airport, boarded the 747 and asked him to step off the plane. He was arrested and taken to a holding cell in Manhattan. After being held for a few days, he was remanded to the notorious Ryker's Island jail for two days before being given house arrest in a residence his rich wife had rented in Tribeca.

So the man expected to be the next President of France had been utterly humiliated. But what soon became known was that DSK was not merely a brilliant economist and politician. He was a serial womaniser who would probably put Don Juan to shame. He gladly paid €1,500 a night for hookers here, there and everywhere, provided they were pretty and around their early 20s. (He was no Epstein with a thing for underage girls). He had taken part in naked sex orgies in France and the USA, and probably other countries as well. He seems to have sampled even more female flesh than Harvey Weinstein. Until then, though, he was not known for any form of violence. But no sooner had the news spread around France than two women claimed he had threatened them in their early 20s in the same manner.

After a long drawn out "he did", "she said" case, it finally got to court. Remarkably the prosecution told the judge it was withdrawing its case because the evidence from the maid was not trustworthy. It turned out that some time after arrival in the USA, she had claimed she had been raped about 9 years earlier by multiple soldiers, her tears helping to convince those who heard the story. It was proved to be fake. She was found to have $60,000 in her bank account. She claimed to have a businessman boyfriend who had asked to use her account whilst he opened one in a new city in the mid-West(!!) The boyfriend turned out to be a drug pusher in jail. When being interrogated she said her English was not good enough and asked for an interpreter. Yet when the interpreter translated one sentence, the maid said in English "No, that's not what I said!" In a phone call with the man from his prison, she said words to the effect, "Don't worry. He has money. I know what I am doing."

The maid claimed she entered the suite to clean in in preparation for the next guest. Yet I know of no luxury hotel where a maid is permitted to undertake a major cleaning of a Presidential suite until informed by the Head Housekeeper that the guest has checked out and the suite is free. As can be seen on the plan, this suite was very large. A guest in the bathroom would be extremely unlikely to hear a doorbell. When the maid saw DSK, why did she not rush out of the room? Almost certainly she could have done so before he reached her. Some sort of sexual encounter no doubt did take place. But was it consensual? Did money change hands?

The floor plan above also highlights another strange fact (and this is not in the Netflix series). As far as I recall, Room #2820 had no guest the night before. Why therefore did the maid enter that room no less than three times between 10:30 and 11:30 am? Even more curious, why did she return to that room at 12:26 pm for less than a minute? I can fully understand that if she was indeed traumatised by what happened with DSK, she might have waited before reporting it. She was an immigrant and she had a good job that paid well. She did not want lose it. But what had she been doing in #2820? Had she left something there for later collection? We do not know and I do not believe this ever came up in the court proceedings.

Whatever actually happened - a sexual assault by a known serial womaniser, an extortion attempt by a maid who knew exactly who was occupying that suite and exactly what she was doing, a combination of the two - we will now never know. Did anyone in France instigate what happened for political purposes? We do know that in a civil suit, the maid received a very generous settlement generally agreed to be $1.5 million. She now runs a restaurant. We do know that the scandal humiliated DSK, wrecked his Presidential hopes and any future political career. It also wrecked his marriage, but it was his third and he soon remarried. He has always stated he made a mistake, that the sex was consensual and he remains the aggrieved party. 

There were clearly faults on both sides. On the basis of everything I read 10 years ago and what I saw in the Netflix series, I do think DSK was set up in some way. Why and by whom, again I have no idea. I just do not trust the maid and I believe DSK was so arrogant he could - and still can - only believe he had been massively wronged.  

Sorry for the length. I am stuck at home again today and writing relieves the boredom!!

[Pete1111]

I remember when the allegation made the news, and having a sense it could easily be BS.