By Mondo Times editors
Boulder Colorado USA
Posted on July 26, 2011 at 9:05am

Strauss-Kahn Lawyers Decry Media Circus

-- The former IMF chief's attorneys, William W. Taylor and Benjamin Brafman, commented on what they characterize as an "unseemly circus" being perpetuated by their client's accuser, Nafissatou Diallo.

Diallo is the hotel maid who has accused former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault. On July 24, Diallo gave her first print and television interviews about the incident to Newsweek and ABC News, respectively.

From Strauss-Kahn's attorneys' statement, dated July 25, 2011:

"Yesterday, we stated unequivocally that Ms. Diallo is the first accuser in history to wage a media campaign intended to force a prosecutor to pursue charges against an innocent person, an innocent person from whom Ms. Diallo wants money. Indeed, Ms. Diallo has turned to print and airwaves, as well as to media events and rallies, in a campaign orchestrated by her lawyers and consultants to bring pressure on the prosecutors in this case. These efforts are a desperate distraction from the key fact that Ms. Diallo has had to admit to misleading these very same prosecutors from the beginning. And, 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 remains unprofessional and it violates the most sacred ethical responsibilities lawyers are sworn to uphold. The only purpose of this conduct is to inflame public opinion against an innocent defendant in a pending criminal case. The facts remain, however, that no matter the number of rallies, press conferences and media events staged, nothing can camouflage the lies and misstatements that Ms. Diallo has consistently put forward against an innocent person to law enforcement, friends, medical professionals and members of the media.

The cause of justice here is served only when criminal charges are dropped and this unseemly circus comes to an end."

On July 5, the Wall Street Journal reported that Diallo had filed a libel lawsuit against the New York Post for articles it had run that said the hotel maid had worked as a prostitute while employed at the Sofitel hotel in Manhattan.

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