Early in the sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, prosecutors held out his accuser as its strongest point. Her account was "compelling and unwavering," complete with "very powerful details" and corroborated by a medical exam, they said.
When they moved Monday to drop the biggest case on their docket, the woman was portrayed as its fatal weakness. She "has not been truthful on matters great and small" and has an ability to present "fiction as fact with complete conviction," and medical and DNA evidence is "simply inconclusive" as proof of a forced sexual encounter, they wrote.
"Our grave concerns about (her) reliability make it impossible to resolve the question of what exactly happened" between the hotel maid and the former International Monetary Fund leader, they wrote.
With that, the Manhattan District Attorney's office asked a judge to put an end to a case that created a cross-continental sensation. A formal dismissal is expected at Strauss-Kahn's court date Tuesday, though the maid, Nafissatou Diallo, is asking the judge to boot the DA's office off the case and put it on hold until a special prosecutor can be appointed.
Still, if the criminal case is dismissed, efforts to shed light on what transpired in Strauss-Kahn's luxury suite May 14 are bound to continue in civil court, where Diallo has sued Strauss-Kahn.
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Motion Filed to Dismiss Charges Against DSK
Watch Video Will Strauss-Kahn Sexual Assault Case Be Dropped?
Watch Video Before his arrest, Strauss-Kahn was seen as the Socialists' leading contender for next year's French presidential elections.
France's Socialists on Tuesday lauded the move to drop the attempted rape case, but few expect Strauss-Kahn to jump back into politics very soon.
French Socialist Party chief Martine Aubry called it "an immense relief" that the prosecutors are abandoning the case.
"We were all waiting for this ... for him to finally be able to get out of this nightmare," she said on France-Info radio.
His Socialist Party has scrambled for a new candidate who could unseat President Nicolas Sarkozy in April-May elections.
Some French voters appeared eager Tuesday to move forward with the presidential campaign and let Strauss-Kahn recover from the last few months in peace.
"Maybe he'll have a political future as a minister or something like that if the Socialists win but not as president, not as a candidate in the next elections," said banker Victor Diosi in Paris.
Echoing and expanding on concerns they had raised previously, prosecutors in New York said Monday in court papers that Diallo repeatedly gave false information to investigators and grand jurors about her life, her past and her actions following her encounter with the French diplomat.
She gave three different versions of what she did right after the alleged attack and showed that she was a troublingly convincing liar by telling a phony tale of a previous rape, prosecutors wrote. She also was evasive about nearly $60,000 that other people had moved through her bank account and insisted she had no interest in getting money from Strauss-Kahn — once telling prosecutors no one could "buy" her — only to sue him within three months, they said.
Prosecutors met briefly Monday with Diallo and her attorney, Kenneth Thompson, who emerged blasting their decision.
DA Cyrus Vance "has not only turned his back on this innocent victim, but he has also turned his back on the forensic, medical and other physical evidence in this case," Thompson said.
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