New York [RR] Manhattan—RepublicReport New York gathered from insiders at prosecutors camp may allow possible deportation in the collapsed sex-assault case against disgraced ex-IMF-Chief, Dominique Strauss Kahn,62, by the accuser, disgraced 32-year-old Guinean immigrant, Nafissatou Diallo for lying to prosecutors back to her country of birth—Guinea, West Africa.

Competent sources said that, “when the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office announced last week that its star witness–the alleged victim–in the case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn had lied on myriad different points concerning her background and the events of May 14 in the Sofitel hotel, the spotlight focused on Strauss-Kahn. The former director of the International Monetary Fund would be freed from house arrest, have his bail refunded, and his lawyers expected the charges against him dropped. But it was a watershed day for his accuser too, though far less joyous”, it added.

RepublicReport New York can confirm that western news agencies and reports are beginning to focus on the possible consequences for the Sofitel chambermaid who claimed ex-IMF-Chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexually assaulted her, should the prosecutor’s case is formally tossed.

[PHOTO: 32-year-old, Nafissatou Diallo, faces deportation, reports, Dominique Strauss Kahn, 31-year-old writer, Tristane Banon]

According sources she could be charged with perjury. The housekeeper reportedly lied under oath when she testified to the grand jury that indicted Strauss-Kahn. In a letter to the defense, the district attorney’s office said she told jurors that after the alleged assault, she “fled to an area of the main hallway” on the 28th floor and waited until Strauss-Kahn left before reporting it. But in their letter, prosecutors said the housekeeper “admitted that this account was false,” and told them she cleaned another room after visiting Strauss-Kahn’s. So far, no news reports have uncovered a perjury charge against the housekeeper, and no city officials have said such a move was in the works.

Competent sources like the Telegraph’s Jon Swaine points out, she did testify “under penalty of perjury,” which is a felony punishable by seven years in prison.

“She could be deported. It sounds dramatic, but an immigration lawyer told The New York Times’ Clyde Haberman that deportation was a very real possibility, “though for now it is firmly planted in the realm of the theoretical.”

“The prosecution’s letter to the defense last Friday also said the accuser had admitted to lying in order to gain political asylum in the United States when she emigrated from Guinea. In his City Room blog post, Haberman recalled the fate of another Guinean immigrant, Amadou Diallo, who was infamously killed by police in 1999. He, too, turned out to have lied on his asylum application, though that had nothing to do with his controversial death. “Still, immigration lawyers said at the time, whenever an asylum seeker in a high-profile situation is found to have lied, it can jeopardize the prospects of those with genuine claims of having escaped oppression. There is a similar risk now.”

Other sources said, Nafissatou Diallo “could lose a lot of money. The details of the housekeeper’s contract with defense attorneys Kenneth Thompson and Douglas Wigdor aren’t public, and they very could be working pro bono. But that seems unlikely, given that it’s not exactly standard for the accuser in a criminal case to hire a lawyer in addition to the public prosecutors. A New York Times story last week said she had $100,000 in the bank, but on the outside, all we know is that she’s a workaday housekeeper raising a daughter in New York.

Adding, “Even if she had that kind of money, several months’ worth of attorney’s fees would put a dent in it. The obvious way to regain the cost is to sue successfully someone in connection to the case. She’s already sued the New York Post for reporting that she was a prostitute, and she may get money from that, but libel cases are notoriously hard to prove. Meanwhile, if the prosecution drops the charges against Strauss-Kahn or if he’s found not guilty, a lawsuit against him or the Sofitel would have a long shot at success.

“She could get in trouble with the Internal Revenue Service. The district attorney’s office says the accuser lied on her tax returns for the past two years, claiming her friend’s child as a dependent in addition to her own. The Christian Science Monitor got a hold of a former IRS lawyer who said it was unlikely the service would pursue a criminal case against her. “They would simply assess against her the tax she should have paid, then add interest and penalties,” Cal Bomar told the paper.

“They would not seek to prosecute.” Still, she could be on the hook for back taxes, and there’s that $100,000 she reportedly has stashed away.

“They might do an audit,” Bomar said. “It’s possible it could be tax evasion, especially if it’s linked to a boyfriend or husband or criminal enterprise.”

Curiously, Dominique Strauss Kahn and his billion wife, Anne SinClair and defense attorneys walked away today from Manhattan High Court with nothing as the prosecutors in the sex-assault case refused to toss the case as rumored last week; as possible negotiations in the final lapse of the IMF-sex scandal has intensified, especially  as the French writer, Tristan Canon formally files sex-assault charge against Dominique Strauss Kahn in Paris, for attempted rape.

According to several sources, ‘Tristane Banon’s criminal complaint, which was filed Tuesday, was already spawning an ugly public battle that appeared to be dividing France and follows trans-Atlantic mudslinging over the Guinean chambermaid who accused Strauss-Kahn of forcing her to perform oral sex in his New York hotel room.

“The sudden weakening of the maid’s case because of New York prosecutors’ doubts about her credibility revived hopes in Strauss-Kahn’s Socialist Party that he could return to France and retake his position as the strongest potential challenger to conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2012 election.

“Those hopes could be undermined by the 31-year-old writer’s legal action, which is expected to set off a lengthy preliminary investigation by prosecutors into whether there is enough evidence to pursue a case in France.

While many here saw Strauss-Kahn, 62, as a victim of rough U.S. justice, the French public may recoil at a drawn-out case in French courts brought by a woman whose mother is a Socialist Party official. Polls already have found French voters evenly divided over whether they want Strauss-Kahn to return, with women more likely to object to his reviving a political career.

A poll of 860 people conducted over the weekend by the magazine Nouvel Observateur found that 54 percent didn’t want Strauss-Kahn to run in the Socialist Party primary, and 63 percent didn’t believe that he would end up running.

“He grabbed my hand, then my arm, I told him to let me go and that’s when the fight started. He pulled me towards him, we fell down and fought on the ground for a few minutes,” Banon told the news magazine L’Express.

She said she started kicking him with her boots, then finally broke free, ran down the stairs and called her mother from her car.

“I couldn’t even drive I was trembling so much,” she said. The Associated Press does not name alleged victims of sexual crimes unless, like Banon, they choose to publicly identify themselves.

Strauss-Kahn allies took to the airwaves Tuesday to try to undermine Banon and question the timing of her complaint about an incident that she says took place in 2003, when she was trying to interview Strauss-Kahn for a book project. Banon first recounted the incident on a 2007 TV show in which Strauss-Kahn’s name was edited out.

Her lawyer began discussing the possibility of bringing charges after Strauss-Kahn’s May 14 arrest in New York, but Banon still said very little.

“Tristane Banon has been telling her story for months and years. She’s filing her complaint today,” Socialist lawmaker Jean-Marie Le Guen told reporters. “In that, I see a certain opportunism that I associate with this mudslinging, these disinformation campaigns against Dominique Strauss-Kahn at the moment when American justice is about to acknowledge his innocence.”

Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers on Monday labeled Banon’s account “imaginary” and said they would file a criminal complaint of slander against her.

Banon told L’Express that she was tired of hearing “lies and rumors” told about the incident.

“I can’t take it anymore hearing that I must be lying because I haven’t filed suit,” Banon said.

Strauss-Kahn was freed from house arrest, without bail, on Friday after New York prosecutors acknowledged they had discovered problems with the credibility of the Guinean hotel maid who accused him of sexual assault. But the charges of attempted rape and other crimes still stand.

In a further twist to the saga, his New York accuser filed a libel suit Tuesday against the New York Post after the newspaper called her a prostitute.

Banon said she had waited eight years before filing her complaint because “it’s very difficult for any woman in this situation … and it’s even more difficult when you know in advance that it’s doomed to failure.”

Banon said she described some of the attack in an “autobiographical novel” she published in 2006 called “The Trapeze Artist.”

“I left out some sordid details, about his fingers in my mouth, his hands in my underwear after he ripped off my jeans and my bra,” Banon said.

Lawyer David Koubbi said Banon had been dissuaded from filing charges after the incident by her mother, Anne Mansouret, a regional councilor in Strauss-Kahn’s Socialist Party. Mansouret now says she regrets urging her daughter not to file a complaint but she feared that taking action against such a powerful figure would affect her daughter’s career.

Mansouret told the French radio station RTL that her daughter “considers the only way to end this is in fact to file a complaint, to say that at least justice can be done.”

“She’s a young woman who’s matured,” Mansouret told RTL. “She took this decision, I suppose, after maturely reflecting.”

Mansouret said she thought that by filing the complaint, it would help her daughter “rebuild herself.”

“She tried to move ahead without doing that, and it wasn’t possible. She arrived at a level of suffering. It’s suffering to be permanently harassed by people who criticize how you’ve acted,” Mansouret said.

If Banon’s complaint leads to preliminary charges, there will then be a lengthier investigation, sometimes lasting years, to determine if the case should go to trial before a judge.

The same process would apply to the slander complaint against Banon.

A slander charge can be brought against anyone who French prosecutors believe deliberately filed a false complaint with authorities. In Banon’s case, an investigation would begin only if her attempted rape complaint is found to be false. A slander charge carries a maximum term of five years in a prison and a 45,000-euro ($65,000) fine.

French prosecutors could decide not to pursue the case against Strauss-Kahn if they find evidence he engaged in forcible sexual contact that fell short of attempted rape. The statute of limitations on sexual assault charges in France is three years, while attempted rape charges can be filed for up to 10 years after the alleged crime.

Strauss-Kahn has relinquished his passport to New York authorities. His next court appearance is July 18.

RepublicReport is monitoring and will continue to monitor this case and other related cases involving Strauss Kahn as details unfolds.

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