French political figures have sparked fury after lining up to defend former IMF director Dominique Strauss-Kahn in a new Netflix documentary revisiting allegations of rape and sexual assault that cost him his job and the potential French presidency.
Strauss-Kahn’s alleged sexual assault on hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo in May 2011 in New York City is the subject of Room 2806 a docu-series which was released on Netflix this week.
Diallo, who worked at the Sofitel New York Hotel, claimed the married Frenchman Strauss-Kahn, known as DSK, forced himself on her on May 14 2011 while she was cleaning his room. However, the case was later dismissed on the recommendation of the DA’s office, who said she had not been truthful and questioned her credibility.
She now runs a West African restaurant in The Bronx, while DSK – who split from his journalist wife Anne Sinclair in 2012 – took up positions on the board of two financial institutions in Russia and Ukraine as well as offering financial advice to the governments of South Sudan and Serbia.
The documentary also tackles another allegation of attempted rape against DSK, made by French author Tristane Banon in 2002, however several well-known French political figures, including former Culture Minister Jack Lang and Former Minister of Labor, Employment and Economic Inclusion Elisabeth Guigou, lined up to defend him in the documentary.
The latter questioned why Strauss-Kahn would need to ‘resort’ to rape, citing his ‘intelligence and brilliance’ – comments which have been described as ‘nauseating’ and ‘disgusting’ by viewers.
Viewers were left ‘disgusted’ by the new Netflix documentary Room 2806: The Accusation, which looked back at the rape allegations made in 2011 against then International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn (pictured in 2015) by Sofitel New York Hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo. DSK, as he is known, has always denied forcing himself on Diallo. The case against him was dismissed in August 2011 after Diallo’s credibility was questioned by the New York DA’s office
Nafissatou Diallo during a settlement hearing on her last day of the Nafissatou Diallo vs. Dominique Strauss-Kahn civil case at the New York State Supreme Court in December 2012
Viewers were shocked by the interviews in the documentary, which were in favor of DSK and expressed their sympathy for Diallo
DSK, who resigned from his job at the IMF and had to abandon the race to become France’s president during the election of 2012, has always denied the charges against him, and has claimed the nine-minute-long sexual encounter with Diallo was ‘consensual.’
The documentary series recounted how many members of DSK’s Socialist Party shared their sympathy for the IMF boss and his family when the scandal erupted, and made no mention of the alleged victim Diallo in their public statements.
Jack Lang, who served as Culture Minister from from 1981 to 1986 and again from 1988 to 1993, as well as Minister of National Education from 1992 to 1993 and 2000 to 2002, repeated his support in the documentary, saying that DSK was a ‘sensual man.’
He praised DSK’s ‘exuberance, his dazzling intelligence, his authenticity’ and recalled how the presidential hopeful had an affair in D.C., while working for the IMF before the Sofitel scandal, saying: ‘Love is not a conspiracy by the devil.
Former French Minister for Labour Elisabeth Guigou, pictured in 2016, said that DSK ‘paid attention to pretty women’ but that it ‘was not a crime’ in the docu-series
Former French Culture Minister Jack Lang, right, pictured in 2020 with former French President Francois Hollande, praised DSK’s intellect in the documentary and asked ‘should a president not be a sensual man’
Lang, (pictured left in the back) with DSK (center, back) , Guigou (right), and former French president Francois Hollande (centre) in 2005. With Strauss-Kahn abandoning the race for the French presidency due to the sexual assault allegations against him in New York, Hollande became the candidate for the Socialist Party at the 2012 and went on to win against incumbent president Nicolas Sarkozy
DSK and his attorney Benjamin Brafman in New York on the day the Strauss-Kahn sexually assault case was dismissed by a Manhattan judge on recommendation of the DA’s office, who said Nafissatou Diallo’s credibility was questionable
Strauss-Kahn and his wife Anne Sinclair in New York arriving at the Manhattan Supreme Court on August 23 2011
‘He’s perhaps more drawn to the romantic side of things. So what? So what,’ Lang added.
‘Should the president not be a sensual man?’ he asked.
Lang, who said DSK was a ‘breath of fresh air’ in the political landscape of the 1980s when they both debuted their political career, said he was particularly shocked by the ‘perp walk’ Strauss-Kahn had to take after his arrest in New York.
‘This man who is head of an international organization, no less, and who is human after all, to be presented like some kind of devil, and named and shamed according to the old American tradition. That’s something that profoundly irks me,’ he said.
Meanwhile, Guigou, who served in the same government as Lang in 2000 and 2002 as Minister of Labor, said DSK ‘paid attention to women, but he wasn’t the only one.’
Speaking of when the Sofitel scandal blew up in France, she said: ‘We knew that Dominique was a womanizer, but there is a big difference between being a seducer and using violence.’
‘In fact, why would he need to resort to that? He is a charming, brilliant, intelligent man.
‘We knew he paid attention to pretty women, but he wasn’t the only one and that’s not a crime,’ she added.
The documentary spanned DSK’s rise to power as a modern politician and economist, before touching on the Sofitel affair, his fall from grace and the following court hearings resulting in a dismissal.
It also dived into other rape allegations against DSK, notably some made by French author Tristane Banon.
Banon’s mother, a French MP, came out in 2011, claiming her daughter had been sexually assaulted by DSK during an interview in 2002.
Banon herself claimed that, during a talk with the politician for a book she was working on at the time, Strauss-Kahn propositioned her and later tried to coerce her into sex before she could flee.
Viewers were also shocked by comments made by French TV presenter and producer Thierry Ardisson, who received Banon on the set of his informal dinner show filmed in 2008.
In an uncomfortable sequence, Banon could be heard recounting her experience with DSK while the male guests of the show were laughing and commenting as if she was telling a good story.
Ardisson explained on the docu-series: ‘She was one of those cute girls, that appear a bit in magazines, on TV.
‘She wasn’t well-known, but she had done a book on politicians worse mistakes,’ he added.
The documentary then cut to the 2008 interview, where Tristane told a group of guests having dinner on the show: ‘I arrived, parked my car, went upstairs.
‘He insisted that I hold his hand, he wouldn’t answer otherwise. And then it was the arm, and gradually… so I stopped.
‘He undid my bra and jeans,’ she told the group, with Ardisson interjecting: ‘I love it.’
Ardisson explained his reaction during the documentary.
‘When I say “I love it” it’s because it can tell this is juicy, it’s gonna create buzz. “I love it,” I’m not saying I love rape,’ he said.
‘I can’t say I was shocked. Politicians that pounce on young women, it was common and still is,’ he added.
‘The libertinism and debauchery of the 18th century that’s part of the culture.’
Meanwhile, speaking of the same interview, Tristane said in the docu-series: ‘When I’m smiling like that, and playing the part of the silly blonde, it’s because I’m extremely uncomfortable, which many women do.
‘This is well before MeToo, so it was still seen as really funny by a lot of guys. It was funny because no one had explained that it wasn’t.’
Room 2806 viewers were left feeling very uncomfortable by the comments made by the French personalities in the documentary.
‘I am disgusted with half of the French people in Room 2806,’ one said.
‘They did Nafissatou Diallo dirty. All because she didn’t fit their image of the perfect victim. I’ll always believe her story. Also, something about this doc doesn’t feel as impartial as it should be. DSK is put on a pedestal at every opportunity, it’s overwhelming,’ said another.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn being escorted by police during his ‘perp walk’ in May 2011 following the rape accusations made by Nafissatou Diallo
Nafissatou Diallo and her lawyers during a press conference in the summer of 2011 in the midst of her court case against DSK
Tristane Banon, pictured in 2011, accused Strauss-Kahn of trying to rape her in 2002 during an interview for a book she was working on
‘Room 2806 is the epitome of what’s wrong with the world. And I feel so sorry for Nafissatou Diallo, who unfortunately has to relive this horror all over again just to prove a point,’ another said.
‘This DSK sexual assault investigation documentary is WILD,’ said another.
‘Currently watching Room2806. The nonchalant attitudes of the people interviewed and their views regarding sexual assault and rape…absolutely nauseating,’ said one.
‘Just another documentary about the worst human behavior ,power abuse and disgust found in politicians,; another said.
‘That wistful smile playing over the lips of Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s wife and associates as they play off his behavior as “affairs” and him being a “red blooded male.” Honestly I’m at the point where I’m going to start boxing some ears,’ one wrote.
The Sofitel scandal erupted in May 2011 when maid Nafissatou Diallo accused International Monetary Fund boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn of having sexually assaulted her.
At the time, DSK was the favorite in the upcoming French presidential election of 2012, but the case blew his chances of making it to the Élysée Palace and cost him his job as the head of the IMF after he was forced to resign.
After the case was filed against him by the State of New York on behalf of Nafissatou Diallo, DKS posted a $1million bail and was put under house arrest in New York.
His supportive wife Anne Sinclair, who was a well-known journalist and media personality in France, traveled to New York to be with her husband of twenty years and rented a luxury studio where the couple stayed during DSK’s house arrest.
Sinclair was the heiress to a massive family fortune which, it was claimed, financed DSK’s political ambitions.
Sinclair stayed by her husband’s side throughout the legal proceedings and never said she doubted his innocence.
However, the couple separated a year later in 2012 and were officially divorced in 2013.
In 2017, Sinclair told French Vanity Fair she has ‘no idea’ that her husband had been unfaithful.
‘I may be naive, stupid, perhaps. I trusted him, I never monitored him,’ she said, French magazine Le Point recounted at the time.
He pleaded non guilty to four felony charges, including two criminal sex acts – including forced oral sex -, attempted rape and sexual abuse, as well as unlawful imprisonment.
Because of DSK’s high profile and long political career – he was France’s Finance Minister from 1997 to 1999 under President Jacques Chirac – conspiracies theories multiplied.
After his arrest, a poll showed 57 percent of French voters believed he was the victim of a smear campaign and prominent French political figures came forward saying they believed he had been framed by his political opponents.
In July 2011, the prosecution asked for the charges against DSK to be dropped on the basis that Diallo had been ‘persistently, and at times inexplicably, untruthful in describing matters of both great and small significance.’
This was based on the fact Diallo changed her story several times after the case was filed and the fact physical evidence showed no sign of violence.
The civil suit was officially dismissed in August of the same year and Dominique Strauss-Kahn swiftly returned to France.
In an interview with French media upon his return, DSK eventually conceded he had had a sexual affair with Diallo, which he called a ‘moral failure,’ but denied the use of violence.