But the damage was done.
The French Socialist Party looked for a new standard bearer, the IMF reshuffled the leadership team negotiating hundred-billion-dollar bailouts in Europe, and finance ministers and heads of state began conferring over who would replace him at the powerful finance agency.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn's allies are hoping that new doubts about the New York chambermaid who accused of him of sexual assault can help revive his 2012 French presidential bid. (July 1)
Series: Breakaway Wealth
In France on Friday, political analysts digested the latest turn of events with talk of a revived Strauss-Kahn bid for the presidency, or at least a reentry into politics that would be a stark reversal from six weeks ago, when he was headed to Rikers Island jail and seemed doomed from any future in public office.
In the United States, there was speculation about the cloud now hanging over Vance, son of a former secretary of state and scion of a powerful Democratic Party family who might have to live down the suggestion that he ruined the reputation of one of the world’s most influential men for a charge that didn’t stick.
At a press conference after the hearing, Vance in brief remarks tried to navigate a treacherous divide — protecting the right of an alleged sexual-assault victim to see justice done with the fact that a high-profile prosecution was coming unglued.
“Our prosecutors will continue their investigation into these alleged crimes and will do so until we have uncovered all relevant facts,” he said.
Strauss-Kahn’s attorneys said the day’s events had brought their client a long way toward freedom. The inconsistencies in the woman’s story were detailed in a Thursday letter from Vance to Strauss-Kahn’s legal team, a disclosure required under a Supreme Court ruling that evidence in a defendant’s favor be turned over by prosecutors.
Given the “substantial lies” acknowledged by the prosecution, “today’s disclosures only further confirm that he will be fully exonerated,” Strauss-Kahn attorneys William W. Taylor III and Benjamin Brafman said in a statement.
A person familiar with the case who would not speak for the record said prosecutors had not yet decided to drop the case completely and may, for example, still seek Strauss-Kahn’s conviction on a lesser misdemeanor offense. But defense attorneys are expected to oppose that.
It was not immediately clear whether Strauss-Kahn would remain in New York or return to his home in Georgetown.
The woman’s name has not been disclosed by prosecutors. It is Washington Post policy to withhold the names of alleged rape victims.
At the IMF, staff prepared for the Tuesday arrival of new managing director Christine Lagarde, her own career diverted from a seat as finance minister in the French cabinet to what may prove an accidental milestone as the first woman to run the fund.
After the emotional whipsaw of seeing their former boss arrested, only to be freed and potentially exonerated, staff around the IMF’s 19th Street headquarters said they were eager to put the episode behind them. The intervening weeks drew particular attention to the agency’s management — and whether its board of directors was lax in letting Strauss-Kahn remain in office after he admitted to an affair with an employee in 2008.
Said one IMF employee, who would not allow his name to be used because he was not authorized to speak for the record: “We have moved on.”
Staff writers Colum Lynch in New York and Cezary Podkul contributed to this report.
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