Dominique Strauss-Kahn hotel video surveillance released

The Envoy

French television outlet BFM-TV on Thursday broadcast excerpts of the Sofitel hotel video surveillance showing former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo in the minutes and hours after she accused him of sexual assault last May.

"The release of these images comes two days after the publication by the New York Review of Books of a correction," to the article, by journalist Edward Jay Epstein, entitled What really happened to Strauss-Kahn,'" French online news outlet Rue89 noted Thursday, in my translation. Epstein's article suggested an alternative theory to the case, that Strauss-Kahn was set up. Among the dots Epstein used to make the thin case was his allegation that two hotel employees were seen in a back room holding what looked like a victory dance for a full three minutes after Diallo reported the assault to hotel security.

But the NYRB editors' note appended to Epstein's controversial article--as well as the above video--show that was false:

Editors' note: The article entitled "What Really Happened to Strauss-Kahn," by Edward Jay Epstein, which appeared in our December 22, 2011, issue, contained a description of what "looked like" a "dance of celebration" by two employees of the Hotel Sofitel in New York City at approximately 1:35 PM on the day that Dominique Strauss-Kahn was arrested in connection with an alleged sexual assault. Security camera recordings have established that the episode, as described, lasted approximately thirteen seconds, not the three minutes mentioned in the article. ↩

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