One Revelation After Another Undercut Strauss-Kahn Accuser's Credibility

Twenty-eight hours after a housekeeper at the Sofitel New York said she was sexually assaulted by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, she spoke by phone to a boyfriend in an immigration jail in Arizona. Investigators with the Manhattan district attorney's office learned the call had been recorded and had it translated from a "unique dialect of Fulani," a language from the woman's native country, Guinea, according to a well-placed law enforcement official.When the conversation was translated - a job completed only this Wednesday - investigators were alarmed: "She says words to the effect of, 'Don't worry, this guy has a lot of money. I know what I'm doing,' " the official said.It was another ground-shifting revelation in a continuing series of troubling statements, fabrications and associations that unraveled the case and upended prosecutors' view of the woman. Once, in the hours after she said she was attacked on May 14, she'd been a "very pious, devout Muslim woman, shattered by this experience," the official said - a seemingly ideal witness. Little by little, her credibility as a witness crumbled - she had lied about her immigration, about being gang raped in Guinea, about her experiences in her homeland and about her finances, according to two law enforcement officials. She had been linked to people suspected of crimes. She changed her account of what she did immediately after the encounter with Mr. Strauss-Kahn. Sit-downs with prosecutors became tense, even angry. Initially composed, she later collapsed in tears and got down on the floor during questioning. She became unavailable to investigators from the district attorney's office for days at a time.Now the phone call raised yet another problem: it seemed as if she hoped to profit from whatever occurred in Suite 2806.
Read more