Disgraced former IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn will settle out of court with a Manhattan maid who accused him of sexual assault, ending a sordid 18-month legal saga, reports say.
According to the New York Times, quoting unidentified sources “with knowledge of the matter,” the French politician and the hotel maid, Nafissatou Diallo, have “quietly reached an agreement to settle” her lawsuit.
There was no word of any payments by Strauss-Kahn and “no settlement had yet been signed,” the newspaper said.
NBC television also reported the possible deal, confirming that it had yet to be completed.
Judge Douglas McKeon, who is presiding over the civil case, said “there may be a court session as early as next week,” but declined to comment on the reports of a settlement.
Diallo’s lawyers did not immediately respond to an interview request, while a spokeswoman for Strauss-Kahn’s legal team declined to comment.
Strauss-Kahn, who had been widely touted as a likely challenger to then president Nicolas Sarkozy, suffered a stunning fall from grace following his arrest at a New York hotel last year on sex assault charges.
Diallo had sued Strauss-Kahn in New York civil court after prosecutors threw out assault charges filed against the politician, saying the maid’s sex assault case would not stand up before a jury.
Diallo, a maid at the Sofitel hotel, alleged the politician had leapt on her in his room and forced her to perform oral sex on him.
Strauss-Kahn was arrested as he was about to take a flight back to Europe. He later conceded that there had been a sexual encounter in the hotel room with the cleaner, but insisted that it had been consensual.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office said that Diallo had been caught lying over several points and charges were dropped.
Strauss-Kahn left for France and claimed diplomatic immunity in the civil case. However a judge rejected that move in May.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese