The SDK Case Crumbles

Robert Sterling
Konformist.com

The sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn collapsed after revelations of the maid's dubious history left in doubt her allegations against DSK. Tellingly, the problem's with the maid and her history were made AFTER his replacement as head of the IMF was picked, so there was no longer an open position that he could return to. While the charges have still not been dropped, it seems only a matter of time, as prosecutors seem to cling in hope that DSK pleads to a misdemeanor charge rather than file a lawsuit against them for reckless prosecution. Either way, he appears to be set to be free soon enough.

Most of the news on the breakdown of this case has focused on the sketchiness of the maid's past, and there's a lot of sketchiness there. Her boyfriend, an incarcerated drug-dealer, is among those who have made cash deposits in her bank account totalling over $100,000, which pretty much makes a slam dunk case of money laundering against her. It is her boyfriend she spoke to on the phone and indicated there was a lot of money to made pressing charges against DSK, more than suggesting an ulterior motive. Meanwhile, she had previously lied about being raped on her own political asylum papers. Finally, she had been caught in lies involving details on the SDK case alone.

Still, focusing on the maid and her credibility problems seems to miss the point. After all, as history would show, even the most credible and honest of rape victims has difficulty facing a team of high-priced lawyers, and is likely to back out of testifying. Despite this, and despite having collected no evidence to back up her story, and despite not even interviewing DSK yet to find out his version of events, they risk an international incident by arresting one of the most powerful men on the planet on the flimsiest of evidence. Her checkered history only explains her own apparent lies, it doesn't explain the NYPD and prosecutor's response. It seems that her shady past fits in with the idea of a frameup here, as she was picked by those planning to frame SDK due to the ease they could blackmail her into doing what they want. In the end, if this was a frameup, it is already a success no matter how it ends, as the primary goal, to remove DSK as head of the IMF, has already been successful.