Michael Daly, Alison Gendar, Joe Kemp, and Rich Schapiro
5/14/2011
IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn is in hot water with American authorities. Photo Manuel Balce Ceneta, AP
A top French politician nicknamed “the great seducer” was dragged off a flight at Kennedy Airport Saturday after he was accused of sodomizing a Manhattan hotel maid, sources said.
Port Authority cops grabbed Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund and a presidential hopeful in France, moments before his Air France plane took off about 4:45 p.m.
Strauss-Kahn, 62, allegedly crept up behind a maid after she entered his room and forced her to perform oral sex on him, sources said.
The woman broke free and ran out of the room. Strauss-Khan quickly headed for the airport, sources said.
Charges against Strauss-Kahn, who is married to well-known French TV journalist Anne Sinclair, were pending Saturday night, sources said.
Hours before Strauss-Kahn was pulled from the flight, a close Socialist Party ally claimed he was the target of a smear campaign by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
“There is now a totally structured and orchestrated campaign, which has already been announced by Mr. Sarkozy and his closest allies, to attack the character of Strauss-Kahn,” Socialist politician Jean-Marie Le Guen told Europe 1 radio.
This is not the first time Strauss-Kahn has been embroiled in a sex scandal.
Three years ago, the former French finance minister was accused of having a fling with a former underling at the Davos international forum.
H/T Quahog Campaigner
Update: IMF Chief Arrested in New York for Allegedly Forcing Hotel Maid to Give Him Oral Sex and Before Arrest On Sex Allegations, IMF Boss Was Scheduled For Huge Week Of European Crisis Meetings. Both articles are at Business Insider.
Update 2: More at The New York Times.
