Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s trial by media
Photo by Philippe Grangeaud, via the Socialist Party on Flickr
The hotel maid who is accusing Dominique Strauss-Kahn of attempted rape, Nafissatou Diallo, revealed her side of events in interviews with Newsweek and ABC. “Because of him they call me a prostitute. I want him to go to jail,” she said, among other things.
Not for nothing, but because of her, Strauss-Kahn’s dream of becoming president of France seems to be over, he lost his job as director of the IMF, he has been brutally criticized by journalists, columnists, and talking heads in every form of media, newspapers have run sensational and insulting front-page headlines about his private life and branded him “Le Perv” and “Pepe Le Pew,” he was thrown in jail, he and his wife have had to spend hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars on legal fees, guards, publicists, and private investigators, and his reputation has been irreparably damaged.
It seems that for various reasons – money, politics, disapproval of his personal life, or wanting to make a name for themselves – people have been attacking Strauss-Kahn from all directions. Just as he got some encouraging news when prosecutors acknowledged the flaws in their case, his French accuser, Tristane Banon, filed a claim against him for an alleged attempted rape eight years ago. Banon’s mother also claimed that she had sex with Strauss-Kahn, further sullying his reputation. Now the New York District Attorney’s office is trying to get Banon to testify in their case, which Banon’s lawyer, reversing himself, now says she’d be willing to do. Both accusers could pursue civil suits against Strauss-Kahn, which Diallo’s lawyer has said she plans to do. There is even the possibility that he could be prosecuted in France for the alleged events in New York!
My favorite thing in this new series of events is the response by Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers. They said in a statement:
“Ms. Diallo is the first accuser in history to conduct a media campaign to persuade a prosecutor to pursue charges against a person from whom she wants money. Her lawyers and public relations consultants have orchestrated an unprecedented number of media events and rallies to bring pressure on the prosecutors in this case after she had to admit her extraordinary efforts to mislead them. Her lawyers know that her claim for money suffers a fatal blow when the criminal charges are dismissed, as they must be.”
“This conduct by lawyers is unprofessional and it violates fundamental rules of professional conduct for lawyers. Its obvious purpose is to inflame public opinion against a defendant in a pending criminal case. The fact is, however, that the number of rallies, press conferences, and media events they have orchestrated is exceeded only by the number of lies and misstatements she has made to law enforcement, friends, medical professionals and reporters.”
“It is time for this unseemly circus to stop.”
Right on. It is not classy to try a criminal case in the media, as Diallo and her lawyers are doing. The District Attorney’s office should be allowed to make the decision about dropping the charges based solely on the evidence, without being pressured by public opinion.