An American Happy Ending

Manhattan Prosecutors Find Dominique Strauss-Kahn Innocent

The American law enforcement system has not seen such a fiasco for some time.

Former head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who has been lazing about the U.S. these last months, turned out to be completely innocent. He was not labeled a rapist and he was not found guilty of assaulting the Sofitel hotel maid.

Now, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, as if rushing to make amends, has made the decision to request that the court dismiss all charges against Strauss-Kahn. The reason for this decision was doubt about the reliability of the “victim’s” testimony. Not only did she lie during questioning, as established by prosecutors, she was also not legally living in the United States. In order to obtain asylum, the Guinean refugee told the authorities an inaccurate story about herself.

Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers repeatedly declared that he was innocent under the law and that the charges against him were made in haste. However, no one took these arguments to heart, calling them the usual attempts to whitewash a rich client. As a result, the senior official spent the duration of the proceedings in prison and under house arrest.

Strauss-Kahn’s loud arrest was the reason that the IMF head, who was unable to withstand public pressure, agreed to voluntarily retire so as to not disgrace the international organization he had overseen. In turn, French Socialists, who viewed Strauss-Kahn as one of the favorites in the party primaries and Nicolas Sarkozy’s most likely opponent in the presidential elections, preferred not to risk it. They didn’t include the former official under consideration as a potential candidate for the highest government office.

In addition to the criminal case, the Sofitel maid filed a civil suit against the former head of the International Monetary Fund. She is seeking compensation for an undisclosed amount. It is obvious that we are talking about large sums of money, given the resonance of the case. However, the prospects of the suit now look dim. The woman’s lawyers stated that they would continue the fight and would turn to a French court. This time they are going to file a complaint against a deputy mayor of Sarcelles. The deputy mayor allegedly pressured a witness, whose testimony could have been crucial in the case against Strauss-Kahn. But even if the court accepts such a claim, it won’t change the main thing: The proceedings involving Strauss-Kahn will end very soon.

We can congratulate the Manhattan DA’s office for not defending the esprit de corps and for dropping all counts against Strauss-Kahn. Only, the American justice system did all of this too late and too awkwardly, when the reputation of one of the once most promising French politicians was already ruined and his former image impossible to restore.

And what about the black diva, who now doesn’t appear on the street without her shrewd lawyers? Very simply, from all this brouhaha, she has won. Considering American mores, it is possible that soon her tearjerker will appear on the shelves — a story about how one maid at the Sofitel hotel turned her life around.

In their statements, the former IMF head’s defense team never mentioned whether their client would sue the maid for slander. Now, it is considered a fact that the rape accusation, made up by the Guinean immigrant, was not a political hit from the French right, interested in eliminating a strong presidential candidate from the fight. The woman allegedly hoped to cash in on a wealthy official. For such calculated extortion, she, not Strauss-Kahn, should be put in a cell. But will Strauss-Kahn want to reopen an old wound? In the hyper-tolerant mentality prevalent in American society, punishing a black immigrant for slander can be a daunting task. So most likely, Strauss-Kahn will take the first opportunity to leave the U.S. and return home, also leaving the scandal with the lying maid in the past. And it will be with pleasure that the Manhattan DA’s office will announce their success in investigating this high-profile case, which involved big-time politics, money and sex.