Various items on "DSK" (Dominique Strauss-Kahn)

Bmaz at FDL writes about the state of the case as of Saturday in DSK Case Collapse: Lawyers, Phone Calls & Money the S*** Hits The Fan 07/02/2011. I checked back at my one post where I discussed the Strauss-Kahn case, Dominique Strauss-Kahn's arrest and the IMF's political direction 05/17/2011, and was relieved to see I didn't say anything that I'm embarrassed about now. My focus there was on the potential implications of his departure from the IMF. And I still say that the American press coverage I've seen passed over the IMF policy implications pretty lightly. I also posted a video of a debate between Naomi Wolf and Maureen Tkacik on thorny issues raised by the case and its larger context. Wolf's reservations about whether due process was being observed by the law and whether the press was being sufficiently careful are particilarly notable in light of the latest developments.

This is the news report from PBS Newshour, In Strauss-Kahn Case, All Eyes on Accuser's Statements 07/01/2011:



As I noted in that May post, Strauss-Kahn is clearly an arrogant prick. And it's important to note that, as of this writing, his accuser has not withdraw her rape accusation nor has the prosecutor withdrawn the charges. And the fact that the accuser may also be an unsavory character doesn't mean her accusation shouldn't be taken seriously. Clearly, the New York District Attorney's office did take it very seriously.

But, as bmaz describes, the rape case looks like it's going up in smoke:

It is not often you see the total implosion of a major criminal case in quite such a spectacular fashion as we have witnessed with the Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK) case in the last 24 plus hours. As I said Thursday night when the news first broke of the evidentiary infirmities in relation to the putative victim were first made public in the New York Times; there is simply no way for the prosecution to recover, the criminal case is dead toast.

Today, the letter from the Manhattan DA’s Office to DSK’s attorneys detailing the Brady material disclosures gutting their victim’s credibility was made public. It is, to say the least, shocking. But what has transpired since then has been nothing short of stunning.

As expected, DSK had his release conditions modified to OR (own recognizance) and all restrictions, save for not leaving the United States, removed. If you do not think that is a crystal clear sign of just how much trouble the prosecution is in, then you do not know criminal trial law.

Well, I don't know criminal trial law on any specialized level. But what Jim Dwyer and Michael Wilson report in Strauss-Kahn Accuser's Call Alarmed Prosecutors New York Times 07/01/2011 indicates that not only is her credibility as a witness in question in a general way. There is also at least one piece of evidence, from a call she made to an acquaintance in prison the day after the alleged attack that was recorded, that directly relates to her credibility on the specific allegation. The PBS Newshour report above also mentions a serious oddity about her initial account of the incident under oath to the grand jury. The prosecution has not yet dropped the charges of rape and sexual assault. Bmaz speculates that dropping the charges could come as early as next week. But the case is still pending as of now.

Laura Rozen in Lawyer for alleged victim in DSK case lashes out at DA, says victim will come forward The Envoy 07/01/2011 writes, "'Law & Order' could not have produced a script with more dramatic turnarounds."

Digby, whose has been piercingly critical of our Pod Pundits' obsession with stories involving sex and powerful people, recalls in DSK: with friends like these ... Hullabaloo 07/01/2011 the dubious quality of the public support he received from the for-some-reason-famous philosopher Bernard Henri Levy: "With friends like Bernard Henri Levy, DSK is lucky he didn't get life in prison. Let's just say his [Levy's] defense [of Strauss-Kahn] was what made me tend to believe the charges."

Robert Kuttner has generally had some decent commentary on the case, including this piece which commenting on how unions help protect members from employer retaliation in reporting a sexual assault in situation like this one in Union Maid The American Prospect Online 06/06/2011.

But Kuttner took some flak for this post, Applying Occam's Razor to Strauss-Kahn The American Prospect Online 06/30/2011. He addresses the criticisms here: Postscript on DSK The American Prospect Online 06/30/2011.

Tags: maureen tkacik, naomi wolf, strauss-kahn

Discussion on Strauss-Kahn case

This Retuers video posted 05/26/2011 features Naomi Wolf and Maureen Tkacik discussing the Dominique Strauss-Kahn assualt case:



Tags: maureen tkacik, naomi wolf, strauss-kahn

Dominique Strauss-Kahn's arrest and the IMF's political direction

Robert Kuttner gives a quick run-down on arrrested International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Dominique dubious personal and professional history as it relates to the pending charges against him in Strauss-Kahn and the European Left Huffington Post 05/15/2011:

Strauss-Kahn, who until yesterday headed the International Monetary Fund, was the Socialist front-runner to challenge French President Nicolas Sarkozy next year. Polls showed that Strauss-Kahn well ahead of both Sarkozy and far right populist Marine Le Pen.

But even before this latest scandal broke, Strauss-Kahn didn't seem like much of a socialist. Last week, the press caught DSK, as the local press calls him, and his wife tooling around in a borrowed $150,000 Porsche, which reinforced his image as wealthy playboy. In 2008, Strauss-Kahn barely survived a widely publicized affair with one of his IMF employees, and in the wake of the New York incident, another woman has stepped forward claiming a rape in 2002.

Cynics here have argued that the wily Sarkozy promoted his likely rival for the IMF post to increase the chances that the imperious Strauss-Kahn would commit some highly visible and politically fatal act. For demolishing the Socialists' claim to speak for the common Frenchman and woman, it's hard to beat an accusation of the entitled Socialist standard bearer orally raping a chambermaid in a $3,000 luxury hotel room and then trying to skip town.

Politics is politics, so it's certainly not unthinkable that Sarkozy may have had such a possibility in mind.

While Strauss-Kahn may not have been "much of a socialist," as Kuttner says - the IMF during his term in office had moved a bit away from the neoliberal Washington Consensus that had so badly discredited the IMF in much of the world. Joe Stiglitz discusses that shift in The IMF’s Switch in Time Project Syndicate 05/05/2011 (before Strauss-Kahn's arrest). Stiglitz describes how "Iceland showed that responding to the crisis by imposing capital controls could help small countries manage its impact." And that subsequent capital flows to growing developing nations has made the need for such capital controls even more widely appreciated. The IMF has now "blessed such interventions," i.e., capital controls, though Stiglitz notes that the IMF stayed witht he neoliberal notion that they should be only a "last resort." And he argues:

On the contrary, we should have learned from the crisis that financial markets need regulation, and that cross-border capital flows are particularly dangerous. Such regulations should be a key part of any system to ensure financial stability; resorting to them only as a last resort is a recipe for continued instability.

Stiglitz considers it an even more signficant shift in IMF policy has been "the link that the IMF has finally drawn between inequality and instability." This is an issue of particular concern in the United States, though we are a long way from being subjected to the dubious tutelage of the IMF that threaten Greece and other EU countries under attack by the capital markets. Stiglitz notes, "As it is, with almost one-quarter of all income and 40% of US wealth going to the top 1% of income earners, America is now less a 'land of opportunity' than even 'old' Europe." And he concludes

For progressives, these abysmal facts are part of the standard litany of frustration and justified outrage. What is new is that the IMF has joined the chorus. As Strauss-Kahn concluded in his speech to the Brookings Institution shortly before the Fund's recent meeting: "Ultimately, employment and equity are building blocks of economic stability and prosperity, of political stability and peace. This goes to the heart of the IMF’s mandate. It must be placed at the heart of the policy agenda."

Strauss-Kahn is proving himself a sagacious leader of the IMF. We can only hope that governments and financial markets heed his words.

Obviously, Stiglitz was commenting on Strauss-Kahn's public role as IMF chief, not on his alleged sexual assaults. Kuttner concurs with Stiglitz' judgment on the recent direction of IMF policy:

For all his personal flaws, Strauss-Kahn, in his current job as head of the International Monetary Fund, has been less of an austerity-monger than most of his predecessors. That's a pretty low bar, but under Strauss-Kahn and his chief economist, Olivier Blanchard, the IMF has uncharacteristically weighed in on the side of not punishing nations with large deficits, but helping them to grow their way out of recession.

With Strauss-Kahn sidelined and probably finished, the IMF has appointed an American, John Lipsky, a career official, as acting managing director. Strauss-Kahn, as a French Socialist, had been leaning against the IMF austerity culture, and Lipsky is considered more orthodox.

Steve Clemons also discusses recent IMF policy and Staruss-Kahn's public leadership style in The Meaning of Strauss-Kahn Washington Note 05/16/2011.

Tags: imf, international monetary fund, joseph stiglitz, neoliberalism, robert kuttner, strauss-kahn