The Manhattan maid who accused former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of attempting to rape her has come forward and gone public.
Nafissatou Diallo is a 32-year-old immigrant to the United States from Guinea, who was working as a New York City hotel housekeeper while Strauss-Kahn was visiting the city on business. In an interview from yesterday’s Newsweek website, Diallo described how Strauss-Kahn appeared as a “crazy man” and attacked her when she entered his room. According to Diallo, Strauss-Kahn emerged naked from the bathroom of his luxury suite on May 14th and forced her to perform oral sex. She made the personal choice to come forward and reveal her identity so as to deliver a message to her accused attacker:
“I want justice. I want him to go to jail,” she said in excerpts from an ABC News television interview that will air today. “I want him to know that there is some places you cannot use your money, you cannot use your power when you do something like this,” Diallo said.
One of Diallo’s attorneys, Douglas Wigdor, said she has come forward to let the world know she is not a “shakedown artist or a prostitute,” which are only a few of the choice names being hurled at Diallo by some who doubt her story. “She’s being attacked … and she thought it was important to put a name and face to her account,” Wigdor said.
The 62-year-old Strauss-Kahn has repeatedly denied all the charges against him. In a statement on Sunday, his lawyers called Diallo’s interview a last-ditch effort by the maid and her lawyers to extract money from the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund. “She is the first accuser in history to conduct a media campaign to persuade a prosecutor to pursue charges against a person from whom she wants money,” lawyers Benjamin Brafman and William Taylor said.
