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 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, according to two well-placed law enforcement officials. Although forensic tests found unambiguous evidence of a sexual encounter between Mr. Strauss-Kahn, a French politician, and the woman, prosecutors do not believe much of what the accuser has told them about the circumstances or about herself. Since her initial allegation on May 14, the accuser has repeatedly lied, one of the law enforcement officials...

Pierre Moscovici, a Socialist legislator, is “in mourning,” he said in an interview, and so are the Socialists. With the shocking fall of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the party leader who was arrested in New York on charges of sexual assault against a hotel housekeeper, the party is trying to pick up the pieces — and to pick a presidential candidate from an uninspiring set of choices. Mr. Moscovici was one of the closest allies of Mr. Strauss-Kahn, his former teacher, known as D.S.K. He was deeply involved in preparing the campaign that was expected to sweep Mr. Strauss-Kahn and the Socialists...

About 15 minutes after police detectives from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey pulled Dominique Strauss-Kahn off a Paris-bound flight, he told them he had diplomatic immunity, according to a document filed by prosecutors on Thursday. Then, after he was handcuffed, Mr. Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the IMF asked to speak to someone from the French consulate and requested that his handcuffs be secured in front of him rather than behind his back. When it became clear that he would miss his flight, he asked to make a call so he could let people know he would not...

When Dominique Strauss-Kahn was arrested at John F. Kennedy airport last month on his way out of the country, police said he initially told them "I have diplomatic immunity."  When police asked him to show his papers, he answered: “It’s not in this passport, I have a second passport. Can I speak with someone from the French Consulate?”   Strauss-Kahn’s statements are contained in a Voluntary Disclosure Form given by prosecutors to defense lawyers and filed by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance on Thursday. The documents contain summaries of what Strauss-Kahn, the former IMF chief, said as he was being...

  Dominique Strauss-Kahn is expected to claim his arrest was marred by irregularities when he is formally arraigned in New York state court on Monday on sexual assault charges.   The former IMF  chief faces several charges including  attempted rape, sexual abuse, and unlawful imprisonment on a New York hotel maid.  He was arrested on May 14 as he sat in an Air France jet awaiting takeoff for Paris after contacting the Sofitel hotel to say he had forgotten one of his mobile phones.  Police traced the call and arrested him, citing fears he might seek to  flee the country.   A source...

The former International Monetary Fund chief faces several charges including charges including attempted rape, sexual abuse, and unlawful imprisonment on a New York hotel maid last month. He was arrested on May 14 as he sat in an Air France jet awaiting take for Paris after contacting the Sofitel hotel to say he had forgotten one of his mobile phones. Police traced the call and arrested him, citing fears he might seek to flee the country. A source close to Mr Strauss-Kahn, a former Socialist presidential hopeful, said the flight fear was unfounded. "The conditions of Mr Strauss-Kahn's arrest pose...

PARIS (Reuters) – The arrest of ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on attempted rape charges has unleashed a soul-searching in French politics, media and law that seems to deepen rather than wane as his case progresses. Strauss-Kahn, who will plead not guilty Monday to charges he tried to rape a maid in a New York hotel, had been a likely future French President before his dramatic arrest three weeks ago as he sat in an airplane waiting to take off for Paris. "The Strauss-Kahn affair is going to change a lot of things," said Chantal Brunel, a member of the ruling...

Nine years ago, Anne Mansouret dissuaded her daughter from filing a legal complaint for attempted rape against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a prominent member of the Socialist Party in France and the former husband of one of her best friends. But now she is speaking out about what happened and what other Socialist leaders knew. And some Socialists — deeply embarrassed by the allegations against the wealthy man who was likely to be their presidential candidate next year — have called for her expulsion from the party. In a series of interviews, Mrs. Mansouret — by turns defensive, emotional, argumentative and uncompromising...

Two high-profile attacks on hotel maids are leading to a change in security at two Manhattan hotels: The Wall Street Journal reports that according to union officials, the Pierre Hotel and the Sofitel New York will equip their room attendants with panic buttons in case they are attacked. The Journal reports the change came after a meeting with union officials: "Let everybody in the world traveling to New York know that when they stay in a hotel room, the person cleaning that room is armed with a button that they can immediately press if you're stupid enough to get inappropriate,"...

The video below of Tristane Banon talking about what it was like when Dominique Strauss-Kahn came onto her is getting posted all around the internet now that DSK has been charged with sexual assault. [...] "It ended really badly. We ended up fighting. It finished really violently." "We fought on the floor. It wasn't a case of a couple of slaps. I kicked him, he unhooked my bra, he tried to open my jeans." [...] "For my first book I had to interview people about their biggest mistake...he didn't really answer but suggested we meet again. He asked me to...

PARIS — Nine years ago, Anne Mansouret dissuaded her daughter from filing a legal complaint for attempted rape against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a prominent member of the Socialist Party in France and the former husband of one of her best friends. But now she is speaking out about what happened and what other Socialist leaders knew. And some Socialists — deeply embarrassed by the allegations against the wealthy man who was likely to be their presidential candidate next year — have called for her expulsion from the party. In a series of interviews, Mrs. Mansouret — by turns defensive, emotional, argumentative...

After Osama bin Laden was killed, a prominent French radio station called me for an interview. It turned into a mildly hallucinogenic experience. Everybody from the president of the United States to Al Qaeda itself was saying Bin Laden was dead, but my interviewer kept pressing me for “the proof.” I talked about DNA samples, the word of the American president, the accumulated intelligence, but it was clear that a Gallic conspiracy reflex — especially active with regard to France’s sometime American savior — had kicked in. The view that this might all be some U.S. plot or hoax had...

"It is hard for me to evaluate the real political underlying reasons and I do not even want to get into that subject, but I cannot believe that everything is as it seems and how it was initially presented," he said. "It does not sit right in my head." Mr Strauss-Kahn was arrested at JFK airport in New York on May 14 for allegedly sexually assaulting a hotel chambermaid. Mr Putin's public support for Mr Strauss-Kahn comes days after a French politician alleged that the former IMF chief had said before his arrest that he thought Mr Putin was actively...

  Anne Cottavoz is of two minds about the Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair, her American mind and her French mind, though she concedes that after living in the United States for 27 years, there may be some blurring of the two. Ms. Cottavoz, a Frenchwoman who owns a health food store on the Upper West Side, said Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s arrest exposed a “slippery slope” in France between what she called “chauvinist behavior” and something more aggressive, like the sexual assault of a hotel housekeeper that Mr. Strauss-Kahn, the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund, has been accused of. In...

The sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, which continues to crowd out much other news here, is becoming something of a civics lesson in American justice — one that has inspired both biting criticism and some respect. Legal experts say much of the consternation here over what many consider rough treatment in the news media and the courts is rooted in a general unfamiliarity with an American justice system that differs profoundly — in procedure, tone and philosophy — from the French model. “There is an aspect of pageantry that we don’t have in our country,” said Judge Marie-Blanche Régnier,...

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the disgraced ex-chief of the International Monetary Fund accused of sexually assaulting a New York City hotel maid, is out on bail and living in luxury in a 6,800-square-foot Manhattan town house with its own private spa, movie theater, gym, bar and rooftop terrace with barbecue grill. Strauss-Kahn, charged earlier this month in the alleged attack on the 32-year-old maid, posted $1 million bail last week and agreed to remain under house arrest. But since then, Strauss-Kahn has had to live in temporary housing because his first choice for an apartment fell through when his prospective neighbors complained...

Kahn and the Obamas at a dinner during the G-20 conference in September 2009. Photo: The IMF Flickr Some pictures say a thousand words. This one just says two: No Touching. .

This is your "what the hell?" video of the morning. Treasury Secretary Geithner is asked if he knew about the "predatory atmosphere" at the IMF. He says "this is a hard question to ask a man." Except, it's not a hard question, for a man or for anyone. "Were you aware of the culture of rape at IMF" has two possible answers: "yes, I noticed" or "no, I just didn't see it." But, of course, he can't say either because if he saw abuse then the follow-up question is going to be why he didn't do anything about it. And...