Dominique Strauss-Kahn Tapes released.

[Prince Glittersnatch III]

http://online.wsj.com/article/AP0ccca4e12bc1416684011e807737fb2d.html

Strauss-Kahn was initially charged with attempted rape after a hotel maid, Nafissatou Diallo, alleged he attacked her and forced her to perform oral sex. New York prosecutors dropped the charges after they said they lost confidence in Diallo, who has filed a civil case.

In the clips, Strauss-Kahn — the former head of the International Monetary Fund — exits an elevator, pays his bill and gets in a cab. BFM said those images were filmed about 20 minutes after the alleged May 14 assault. Strauss-Kahn, wearing a dark coat and wheeling a suitcase, does not appear hurried or nervous.

A separate segment BFM said was filmed about 40 minutes after the alleged attack shows Diallo slumped against a wall in a corridor reserved for hotel staff. The images are heavily pixelated, and it's impossible to make out the expression on her face.

At one point, she appears to act out the attack, grabbing her own breast and pursuing a colleague, her arms outstretched.

Diallo's lawyers insisted the images strengthen Diallo's case against Strauss-Kahn.

The "surveillance tape is further proof that Ms. Diallo is telling the truth about the brutal sexual attack," attorneys Kenneth Thompson and Douglas Wigdor said in a statement Thursday.

None of the images show either Strauss-Kahn or Diallo emerging from the suite in the Sofitel hotel where the attack allegedly took place because, BFM explained, there are no surveillance cameras on that floor.

The BFM clips broadcast do, however, include a brief sequence in which two Sofitel employees hug one another and do a joyful little dance as they confer in a dark basement corridor. Recent news reports pointed to the dance as evidence of an alleged political plot against Strauss-Kahn.

In a statement Thursday, Sofitel's parent company, French hotel group Accor, said "The idea that these videos prove Accor's involvement in a conspiracy is nonsense."