DNA on maid’s clothing matches Strauss-Kahn sample (VIDEO)

DNA test results showed a match between traces of semen on a Sofitel hotel maid's shirt and a sample submitted by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former director of the IMF who is accused of sexually assaulting her.

Law enforcement officials confirmed the DNA match, the Wall Street Journal reported. Strauss-Kahn, who was accused of sexually assaulting the Sofitel employee and was removed from an Air France flight at JFK Airport in New York on May 14, submitted to the DNA test after his arrest. The DNA was found on a shirt worn by the 32-year-old maid.

Pieces of carpet were also taken for testing from the New York hotel's penthouse suite where Strauss-Kahn was staying when the alleged assault occurred. DNA results are expected to play a significant role in his trial.

Witnesses at the hotel told an official that the maid appeared upset when Strauss-Kahn passed her in the hall when he was leaving, minutes after the alleged attack occurred, the Journal also reported:

She was shaken up, the official said, "quite upset" and "had to be consoled." At some point while the maid was being consoled by the other hotel workers, Mr. Strauss-Kahn walked out of his hotel room, down the hallway and onto the elevator.

The DNA match was reported first by a French web site, Atlantico.fr, which cited no source. When Strauss-Kahn was arrested in New York on May 14, one of the first people to spread the news was a shareholder in Atlantico.fr, Arnaud Dassier. Dassier has a history with Nicolas Sarkozy, the center-right president of France; he ran his online election campaign in 2007, according to the New York Times.

Strauss-Kahn, a Socialist, was expected to declare his candidacy to run against an increasingly unpopular Sarkozy in the French presidential elections next year, and many media outlets in France have raised questions about the Strauss-Kahn arrest, pointing out that Sarkozy had much to gain if Strauss-Kahn were out of the running.

Strauss-Kahn has resigned his position at the IMF, but maintains his innocence of the charges.