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Saturday Open Thread

I just got back from the Farmers Market. Not too many things are worth getting up early on a Saturday, but the produce at the market is so far superior, I didn't mind at all.

Why is Kim Kardashian's wedding getting so much coverage? Does the media think she's the American equivalent of Princess Kate? I certainly don't and could care less.

Manhattan DA Cy Vance is expected to announce Tuesday whether he'll dismiss charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The latest: The DA is asking the accuser's lawyer for documents regarding settlement dicussions with Strauss-Kahn's lawyers in June. There are reports he offered to have the accuser stop cooperating with authorities if a settlement was reached. The private settlement discussions, held in mid-June, were reported by the New York Times on July 27. [More...]

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Dominique Strauss-Kahn: Accuser's Incarcerated Fiance Identified

Major props to Christine Pelisek, Terry Greene Sterling and Christopher Dickey of The Daily Beast, who discovered the identity of the jailed fiance/husband of the hotel maid in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case. He is Amara Tarawally, 35. Yesterday, Daily Beast reporters interviewed him at the Arizona immigration center.

Tarawally himself was arrested in July 2010 along with another African, a Mexican, and a U.S. citizen of Mexican descent, according to court records. Tarawally had produced almost $40,000 in cash to buy 114 pounds of marijuana from a man who turned out to be a police informant in Chandler, Arizona.

After a plea bargain, in which three felony charges were dropped and Tarawally copped to conspiracy to possess a large amount of cannabis, he served nine months in jail and was put on probation but immediately turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Tarawally is now behind the cinderblock walls and concertina-wire fences of a detention center in the desert town of Eloy, Arizona, awaiting a deportation decision.

The accuser's phone call in a Fulani dialect with Tarawally the day after the encounter with DSK may be the biggest problem for the state's case. Prosecutors believe she told him not to worry, she knew what she was doing and the man she accused had a lot of money. [More...]

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Dominique Strauss-Kahns Attorneys Rule Out Plea Deal

A lawyer for Dominique Strauss-Kahn has confirmed his client will not plead guilty to anything.

The letter from the accuser's lawyer to the DA seeking recusal and appointment of a special prosecutor is all grandstanding. In three and one half pages, he never even cites a statute or case supporting his position. He declares himself judge and jury by proclaiming that the evidence shows DSK is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

What's he really up to? In my view, the letter is a pre-emptive strike at Vance's office in case they decide to charge his client with a crime for her admitted false statements to the grand jury or involvement in her jailed husband's financial crimes. By impugning the integrity of the DA's office, he's saying that any future charges against his client are the product of unfair bias. [More...]

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Dominique Strauss-Kahn: Countdown to Dismissal

The Wall St. Journal and the New York Post are reporting the DA's office is likely to drop charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn at or before his July 18 court date, due to the accuser's credibility issues and prosecutors' doubts as to whether a crime was committed.

There are new details about the accuser's actions after the encounter and how she encountered her supervisor. The WSJ reports:[More...]

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Strauss-Kahn on Suicide Watch at Rikers, Hearing Friday

Dominique Strauss-Kahn is on a suicide watch at Rikers Island.

The official said the action, which will put him under closer supervision, was taken as a result of Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s intake evaluation, which was based on the nature of the charges, whether he had ever been in jail before and other factors, rather than on any gesture or attempt.

He has court again on Friday. Will his lawyers make a new bail proposal with more restrictive conditions, for either the judge presiding over Friday's hearing or a higher court? I would think so. He could live in an apartment in New York, with private guards as bail sitters, like Bernie Madoff, Mark Dreier and Cameron Douglas. Or, instead of a regular ankle bracelet, they could make him submit to GPS monitoring. Aside from its greater tracking abilities, no way could someone get through airport security without it going off.

I don't think Strauss-Kahn's lawyer has said the defense would assert consensual sex as a defense. He hasn't admitted any sexual act took place. The news media is intuiting this from his statement in court, "The evidence, we believe, will not be consistent with a forcible encounter". (He didn't say "forcible sexual encounter." ) [More...]

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IMF Director Strauss-Kahn Denied Bail

IMF Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn was denied bail today, at least until his next court appearance on May 20. He's charged with unlawful imprisonment, engaging in a criminal sex act and attempted rape. Here's the Complaint.

According to Reuters twitter feed, prosecutors argued against bail, saying he may have engaged in similar conduct once before. The defense asked for $1 million bail, saying they expect him to be exonerated. They also told the judge that the person Strauss-Kahn had lunch with on Saturday will testify he was not fleeing the hotel.

By May 20, they will probably have some elaborate plan in place for a private security firm to do 24 hour monitoring at a New York apartment or hotel (as was done for Bernie Madoff and Cameron Douglas (who still managed to violate the terms and get bail revoked.)

More from the New York Times here.

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