REPORT: IMF Chief Strauss-Kahn to Claim "Consensual Sex" as Defense?

PHOTOS: AP and GETTY

Absolutely outrageous. Days after suggesting that International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn had an alibi for the sexual assault that allegedly took place last Saturday ...

The defense is now suggesting that any sex between Kahn and the housekeeper, described as a native of the West African country of Guinea, "would have been consensual", reports the New York Times.

A statement [in court] seemed to suggest the defense may acknowledge that a sexual encounter had occurred. Indeed, on Tuesday, a person briefed on the case said the defense believed that any sex act may have been consensual.

That elicited an angry response from the woman’s lawyer. He dismissed any suggestion that the housekeeper had agreed to have sex with Mr. Strauss-Kahn. “There is no question this was not consensual — she was assaulted and she had to escape from him, which is why when she finally got out of the room, she reported it to security immediately," [Jeffrey J. Shapiro] said. “"It doesn’t matter what Mr. Brafman says, and it doesn’t matter what the defendant says. Her story is her story, which she has told to everyone who asked her, and she is telling the truth. She has no agenda."

The 62-year-old Strauss-Kahn is accused of forcing the housekeeper to perform oral sex and submit to anal sex. The hotel maid is expected to testify before a grand jury today and emphasize "there was nothing consensual" about the encounter, repots ABC News.

NYPD investigators say they brought the maid back to the room where, she says, Strauss-Kahn emerged naked from the bathroom and assaulted her. They say she pointed them to the place where she says she spat after the French politician forced her to perform oral sex. Those fluid samples are being tested for Strauss-Kahn's DNA.

Investigators also say information downloaded from the suite door's electronic card reader indicate the maid entered the room and never closed the door. The hotel policy requires maids to leave the door open when cleaning. The open door, they say, is proof that the women entered the room to work, not to engage in consensual sex.

Staruss-Kahn is charged with a criminal sexual act, attempted rape, and unlawful imprisonment. The man once "widely expected" to become the Socialist candidate for the French presidency remains held without bond at Rlkers Island.

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Comments

[Nathan James]

There is one gaping hole in Strauss-Kahn's defense: It is known that DSK left the hotel before the first police units arrived in response to the 911 call. In Midtown Manhattan, that's an escape window if less than 8 minutes. This is based on the standard response times for NYPD and EMS (in Midtown North) to a call such as an assault.

DSK got out of that hotel as fast as his legs would carry him. It's also known that he had a "standing" reservation with Air France, which means all he has to do is arrive at the airport, and they will find a seat for him. It's pretty clear to me he was trying to get out of the country one step ahead of the police.

MSNBC is reporting that DSK is on suicide watch at Riokers' Island, where he is being held in a solitary cell on protective custody. I don't winder. To go from being an international power figure (and potential French presidential candidate) staying in a $3,000/night room, to accused sex offender in the city's meanest jail, in just a few days, must be unbelievably traumatic. We'll see if his lawyers can spring him on Friday.

I myself actually expected DSK to get electronic monitiring and to lose his passport. I was shocked when the judge remanded him, just as us ordinary folk would have been.

[Jim]

He’s a Master of the Universe.

She’s a poorly paid African immigrant.

How could their liaison have been anything else but consensual? No doubt, she was utterly awestruck with the privilege of having sex with this all-powerful white man. And if she wasn’t, she certainly ought to have been.

(Peeking, now, into this man’s mind.)

[DW Jazzlover]

First he claims nothing happened Now it is consensual sex? To many holes in his story...