A new complaint is about to be filed against Dominique Strauss-Kahn in France. Writer Tristane Banon claims Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her when she went to his apartment for an interview in 2003. Germany’s Deutsche Welle reports that Banon’s mother had convinced Banon not to file charges at the time. Appearing on a reality TV show in 2007, however, Banon recounted the violent incident and though Strauss-Kahn’s name was bleeped, it subsequently came out.
Strauss-Khan has called Banon’s claims “imaginary” and plans to file a slander complaint against her.
Strauss-Kahn, former head of the IMF, resigned after being arrested and charged with several counts after a housekeeper at the Sofitel hotel in New York claimed that he sexually assaulted her. Some media, based on New York Post reports, have reported that that charges could be dropped within the next two weeks; Reuters reports that “revelations that the accuser had lied about being raped in Guinea in a U.S. asylum request” and changed in details in the Strauss-Kahn story have “undermined her credibility.” But Bloomberg, in a story that also talked about those credibility issues, reported on Monday that, though Strauss-Kahn was released from house arrest, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office is not yet ready to dismiss the charges and will complete its investigation.