A new book on former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn by American journalist Edward Jay Epstein has again revealed that he was the target of a conspiracy to weaken his chances of defeating Nicolas Sarkozy to become French president.
Epstein writes in his book that Strauss-Kahn was ‘in the crosshairs’ of observation by French authorities and had no idea his activities could be morphed into a high profile arrest for pimping.
A year ago on Monday, Strauss-Kahn was arrested for sexual assault of a Sofitel Hotel maid in Manhattan.
The charges were dropped when prosecutors decided her reliability was a problem but his political career was killed.
“There may be innocent explanations of what went on in the Sofitel ... but ... the possibility of a conspiracy cannot be ruled out,” Stuff.co.nz quoted Epstein, as saying.
Epstein suspected French authorities bugged Strauss-Kahn’s phone.
He claimed Strauss-Kahn’s BlackBerry phone bafflingly went missing and had its global positioning system turned off after Strauss-Kahn left the hotel.
In an ebook Three Days in May, Epstein had claimed Strauss-Kahn took part in a sex party in Washington, and then flew to New York.
Strauss-Kahn then booked into the hotel whose parent company employed an executive close to Sarkozy's intelligence co-coordinator, according to Epstein.