"In his first interview since his May 14 arrest on charges of attempted rape, Mr. Strauss-Kahn was uncomfortable, intermittently angry and sounded bitter, saying that he had wanted to run for the French presidency and had missed his “appointment with the French people” because of his own actions.
“I wanted to be a candidate. I thought I could be useful. All that is behind me,” he said.
He accused the maid, Nafissatou Diallo, of lying about what happened between them, and accused a Paris novelist, Tristane Banon, of lying about what she said happened between them in 2003, which she has described as an attempted rape — a case still being investigated by the Paris prosecutor.
He called Ms. Banon’s allegations “imaginary and slanderous,” although according to press reports in L’Express of his testimony to the police, he did admit to having made a pass at her and trying to kiss her. But he insisted Sunday that he did not, as she claimed, throw her to the ground, try to undress her and put his hand in her underwear.
“In this encounter, there was no act of aggression or violence,” he said.
The interview on Sunday evening was carefully orchestrated and felt as if it had been almost rehearsed. Mr. Strauss-Kahn said what he wished, arranging to speak live to his wife’s close friend, the anchor Claire Chazal on TF1, the most popular French channel. Ms. Chazal also looked uncomfortable, her arms crossed, and was not aggressive in her questioning.
Mr. Strauss-Kahn, 62, did not describe what happened with Ms. Diallo, except to insist that the encounter did not involve violence, constraint or aggression. But he appeared to have been shaken by what happened afterward, saying that he was “afraid, very afraid” in the days after his arrest, in which the New York police hauled him off an airplane just minutes before it was to take off for Paris on May 14. “When you are caught in the jaws of this machine, you have the impression that it can crush you. I was humiliated before I could even say a word in my defense.”
In the end, the New York prosecutors decided not to bring a case against him, saying Ms. Diallo lacked credibility and had a history of fabrication.
Even as Mr. Strauss-Kahn admitted to his bad behavior, he did so with gritted teeth. The words were regretful but the tone was combative. The liaison with Ms. Diallo, who is suing him in a civil court in New York, “was not only an inappropriate relationship, but more than that, it was an error,” he said.
“I think it was a moral failing, and I’m not proud of it,” he continued. “It was a failing, a failing vis-à-vis my wife, my children and my friends, but also a failing vis-à-vis the French people, who had vested their hopes for change in me.”"
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/19/world/europe/in-interview-strauss-kahn-acknowledges-his-moral-failings.html?_r=1&hp
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