Dominique Strauss-Kahn freed from house arrest

Updated at 2:16 p.m. ET

NEW YORK - Former IMF leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn walked out of court without bail and free from house arrest Friday after prosecutors acknowledged there were questions about the credibility of the hotel housekeeper who accused him of sexual assault.

Strauss-Kahn had been confined for weeks to a ritzy Manhattan loft on $6 million in cash and bond. The charges, which include attempted rape, have not been reduced, but the changes signal that prosecutors do not believe the accusations are as ironclad as they once seemed.

The developments represent a stunning reversal of fortune for the man whose financial and political career all but disintegrated when he was arrested just six weeks ago, CBS News correspondent Elaine Quijano reports.

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The 32-year-old hotel maid accused Strauss-Kahn of chasing her through his luxury suite in May, trying to pull down her pantyhose and forcing her to perform oral sex. Authorities have said they have forensic evidence of a sexual encounter, but defense lawyers have said it wasn't forced.

At Friday's hearing, the prosecutor said the district attorney's investigation has "caused us to reassess our position on the strength of the case," CBS News investigative producer Pat Milton reports.

"It is a great relief," said Strauss-Kahn's attorney, William Taylor. "It is so important in this country that people, especially the media, refrain from judgment until the facts are all in."

A smiling Strauss-Kahn, wearing a dark suit and light blue tie, shook the hand of his attorneys as he left the courtroom with his wife, French journalist Anne Sinclair, Milton reports.

During the hearing, Strauss-Kahn stood quietly, hands folded in front of him and flanked by his two high profile attorneys, Benjamin Brafman and Taylor, as State Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus told him his bail was being revoked and that he would be released in his own custody pending his next court appearance July 18, Milton reports.

"The case is not over as you have heard," Obus said during the nearly seven-minute-long hearing.

The prosecutor said the district attorney's office wasn't dismissing the case against Strauss-Kahn at this time, Milton reports. His passport and other travel documents were not returned.

"Prosecutors wouldn't have agreed to allow Strauss-Kahn out of house arrest if they still felt they had a strong rape case against him," CBS Radio News legal analyst Andrew Cohen reports. "On the other hand, it's telling that they haven't yet released his travel documents, which means they still want him in the states and under the jurisdiction of American courts."

After his arrest, Strauss-Kahn resigned from his post leading the International Monetary Fund and watched his presidential ambitions seemingly crumble.

The stark turn in the case came after the woman admitted to prosecutors she had made up a story of being gang raped and beaten in her homeland to enhance her application for political asylum, prosecutors said in a letter to defense lawyers.

She also misrepresented what she did after the alleged attack — instead of fleeing to a hallway and waiting for a supervisor, she went to clean another room and then returned to clean Strauss-Kahn's suite before telling her supervisor that she had been attacked, prosecutors said.

She also misrepresented her income and claimed someone else's child as her own dependent on tax returns, they said.

The details speak to the maid's credibility and whether her story would stand up under oath in a prosecution that would rely heavily on her testimony.

20 Photos

IMF Director accused of sex assault in NYC

The woman's attorney, Ken Thompson, fired back outside court, saying the district attorney's office was backing away from the case because it was too scared to prosecute it. He said she would come out in public to tell her story but didn't specify when.

Thompson said the woman went to the district attorney with information that her asylum application was flawed, but that she exaggerated on it because she was scared she would be sent back to Guinea. He said she came to the U.S. because she was a victim of female genital mutilation, and she worried her daughter, now 15, would be victimized as well. He also said she had been raped by soldiers there, but that attack did not occur as it was written in her asylum application.

Thompson did not back down on the seriousness of the charges, delivering intimate and specific details from her perspective on a violent attack, saying Strauss-Kahn bruised her vagina, tore a ligament in her shoulder and ripped her stockings.

"When she was fighting to get away, when she was on her knees and he was sexually assaulting her, after he finished, she got up and started to run to the door and started spitting Dominique Strauss-Kahn's semen out of her mouth in disgust all over that hotel room," he said.

Investigators have said they found traces of his semen on her uniform.

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[KARMA_MRA_MGTOW]

By now I'm sure just about everyone within the MRM knows who Dominique Struass-Kahn is. Most probably know him because of the rape accusation set against him by a French maid who claims, Kahn forced her to perform oral sex. I'll admit I hadn't been following this case so I don't know everything that has happened. From the little that I did read I got the impression that Mr. Kahn isn't all that liked by anyone. None of this matters to me, however, because I care little about politics.

What I do care about is fairness. That said, even though Kahn's innocence is already being spread across the web I wish to point out something that I find sickening. Something I find more sickening than the crime Mr. Kahn was accused of committing.

This man's reputation was dragged through the mud by the media. This man was arrested and purposely forced to walk in front of a line of reporters. The crimes he has been charged with were spread through all media outlets as fact before his first day in court has even arrived. This man was forced to resign from his job as the head of the International Monetary Fund. This man's chances for being a solid contender for the French presidency have been severely dampened. All of this and more has befallen this man. Why?

One accusation.

One accusation from a woman has destroyed this man's career. One accusation from a woman has made this man a criminal in the public eye. One accusation from a woman put an electronic tracking bracelet around this man's ankle. One accusation from a woman placed this man under armed guard where he slept. One accusation from a woman has drained millions of dollars from this man's finances. One accusation from a woman has brought all of this turmoil down on this man and the worst part of it is the most sickening.

This accusation was never proven.

There has been no trial but according to the media and of course feminists, this man was guilty. Another sickening fact is while Dominique Struass-Kahn's name has been spread across every news media outlet, most of the same media groups will only refer to his accuser, Nafissatou Diallo, as "the woman".

What world do we live in where disgusting discrimination like this is not only normal but encouraged? How is it that words can destroy a career even if those words turn out to be a lie? How is it that half of the human population has the power to usurp the other half from any professional position with words?......

Find the rest of this article at a voice for men dot com.

[KARMA_MRA_MGTOW]

www.avoiceformen.com

[JohnWPrewett]

Case had honeytrap written all over it from the get go. DKS a prime bigot magnet. Case may have increased his chances of being French President. He kept his cool while the barbarians were pillorying him, ... and if the worst he did was pay for a BJ then doubtful that will bother the French too much. In light of B. Clinton and JFK, it shouldn't bother American "elites" too much either.

[KARMA_MRA_MGTOW]

I'm an atheist who's been a full-time pornographer and sex worker for over 8 years. I'm a former "sex-positive feminist" who tired of trying to shoehorn my reality into a useless ideology like a pair of ill-fitting high heels. I oppose the modern feminist idea that women are inherently victims, brainwashed by "the patriarchy," and in need of a matriarchy to dictate the correct ways for us to behave. I operate SWAAY.org, the only American sex workers' rights project aimed at doing public outreach. I want to prove that supporting sex workers' rights is not just a cause for feminist hipsters, leftists, and sex radicals. My philosophy is informed primarily by Patrick Swayze in Roadhouse: "I want you to be nice until it's time to not be nice."

See my blog @ http://www.feminisnt.com/

[Rocksman]

She set him up for $!

[KARMA_MRA_MGTOW]

All:- if have son or if you plan to have a son you would be negligent not to spend considerable time at the sites below.

THE CULTURE ALL THROUGHOUT THE WESTERN WORLD IS ANTI-MALE UNTIL THE PUBLIC BY THE MILLION FIGHT BACK THIS EPIDEMIC OF FALSE RAPE CLAIMS THIS WILL NOT STOP.

***WAKE UP***
http://www.avoiceformen.com/2011/07/01/one-accusation/

http://www.drhelen.blogspot.com/

http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/

http://www.shrink4men.com/

http://www.the-spearhead.com/

[Molly-Pchr]

Well, she's not credible. If for no other reason, I'm glad to see him freed because of the way he was tried and convicted in the news and on these sites.

[KARMA_MRA_MGTOW]

This is why I do not own a Television...

[billster68]

Releasing Strauss-Kahn on personal recognizance without bail is a big mistake. Guess his judge forgot that he was arrested while trying to flee. After the incident, just ahead of police, he hastily checked out of his hotel and booked a France-bound flight. Then the cops had to track him down, board his plane and physically remove him from his seat. I guess you would have to say that Dominique kinda established himself as a "flight risk". Even with severe travel restrictions and 24 hour supervision this guy will probably escape back to France. Once there, as a French citizen, he cannot be extradited back to the U.S. - - maybe this is an action filled remake of the Roman Polanski saga.

[enwr77]

Sounds like good old tar and feathering of the victim. It was a given that there would be an attack on the victim.

[collegedudeu]

I have to say I don't feel CBS News was fair in its story about the DSK case on July 1st. Aside from a few clips of her attorney speaking, they aired what seemed to me as nothing but unfair smears alleged against the woman. Don't get me wrong, I want the truth, I'm just not sure what that is (having watched CBS News).

[puzzler125]

Here's the thing. If he was innocent why did he resign? Everything that is being brought up about trashing her past? It has absolutely NOTHING to do with this particular crime and it's going make it very difficult to prosecute the alleged perpetrator.

[caradee112]

Hmmm..maybe, just maybe..this will be a lesson to him, a very harsh one, to KEEP his ****** in his pants, even his wife was resigned to the fact that this is just how he is. Well...see what happens?

[train99]

Congratulations, Mr. Strauss-Kahn. Me and all the feminists join in celebrating your vindication.
Now begin selectively suing the rabid American media who gives zero chance to an older white man when accused by a "poor,innocent maid".
Apologies for their soap-opera mentality.
Return to a slightly less politically-correct environment in Europe, although the tentacles of America's new justice system are spreading everywhere, sadly.