The highly publicized prosecution of former International Monetary Fund leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn may take a dramatic turn, and possible ending, today.
The Manhattan District Attorney's office has summoned the hotel maid who accused Strauss-Kahn of attempted rape, Nafissatou Diallo, to a meeting this afternoon. At that meeting prosecutors may reveal to her whether they intend to go forward with the case.
"While we remain hopeful that the District Attorney will decide to continue with the prosecution of Mr. Strauss-Kahn given the mountain of physical evidence demonstrating that he sexually assaulted Ms. Diallo on May 14, we are not confident that he will do so," said Douglas Wigdor, one of Diallo's attorneys.
DSK Accuser to Meet with Prosecutors Today, Rape Charges May be Dropped
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Watch Video Wigdor and his partner Kenneth Thompson are seeking to disqualify Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance from the case. They say they believe he is no longer impartial and they're seeking to move the case to another prosecutor's office. This kind of motion is rarely granted.
There was no immediate comment from the district attorney's spokeswoman.
Prosecutors have come to doubt the case, which once appeared strong, because of what they call "substantial credibility issues" related to Diallo's background and conduct.
Questions have arisen surrounding what happened immediately after the alleged attack and have led the Manhattan District Attorney's office to consider whether to drop the charges amid concerns about Diallo's credibility.
Diallo said she was in the hall when Strauss-Kahn left the suite, but hotel records show she briefly went into another room, and then re-entered Strauss-Kahn's suite.
Diallo has also admitted to lying on her tax returns and lying about the details of a rape in her home country of Guinea that helped her to achieve asylum in the United States -- but she says that it is irrelevant to what she says happened in Strauss-Kahn's hotel suite.
"I have made mistakes," Diallo conceded to ABC News in July. "But this man tried to rape me."
Strauss-Kahn has denied all charges. His attorneys have suggested the encounter in the Sofitel Hotel suite May 14 was consensual. His attorneys have portrayed Diallo as a woman out for money.
If charges against Strauss-Kahn are dismissed, as his attorneys have said they must be, a dramatic prosecution would end without answering the question of what really happened between one of the world's most powerful men and an immigrant maid inside the hotel suite.
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