Dominique Strauss-Kahn files $1M countersuit against New York hotel maid

GlobalPost

LONDON, UK – Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former chief of the International Monetary Fund, has filed a $1 million countersuit against a New York hotel maid who accused him of sexual harassment.

Nafissatou Diallo claims Strauss-Kahn – a one-time French presidential hopeful – forced her to have sex with him in his Manhattan hotel room in May 2011, leading him to quit his post at the IMF.

Subsequent concerns about Diallo’s credibility saw prosecutors drop the charges, and the maid then pursued Strauss-Kahn for undisclosed damages through a civil claim.

Strauss-Kahn’s countersuit was lodged on Monday, a year after the charges were first leveled against him, and accuses Diallo of “knowingly and intentionally making a false report to law enforcement authorities,” Reuters reports.

It claims her “malicious and wanton false allegation” undermined Strauss-Kahn’s reputation and damaged “other professional opportunities,” without specifying the effect of the scandal on Strauss-Kahn’s earlier ambitions to contest the 2012 presidential elections, at which fellow Socialist François Hollande emerged victorious, the Agence France Presse reports.

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In his legal filing Strauss-Kahn denies all wrong-doing, and seeks $1 million for the loss of his job, defamation and false imprisonment, in addition to further unspecified punitive damages and his legal fees, according to the BBC.

In a statement, one of Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers said Monday’s countersuit should come as no surprise to Diallo:

"She is directly responsible for his being arrested, imprisoned, and subjected to extraordinary pain, anguish and expense," William W. Taylor III said, according to the Associated Press, adding:

"Her conduct is not without consequence for her and he is not required to simply endure what she did and her effort to profit for herself without fighting back."

Accusations over Strauss-Kahn’s sexual conduct have continued to dog him since he returned to France following the dismissal of Diallo’s criminal case. In March French authorities placed him under formal investigation in connection with a vice ring in the northern city of Lille. 

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