EFTA Document EFTA01769031

From: Ed <IIM Sent: Monday, April 23, 2012 3:38 PM To: Epstein, Jeff Subject: Eyes only Hi Jeff This is a draft of what I wrote for Guardian. Any suggestions I met with DSK on Friday thel3th 2011 at the elegant Pavilion de la =eine hotel in Paris. Only 11 months had elapsed since the Friday the =3th in May when he had arrived at the Sofitel in New York. At that =ime, he was then leading Nicolas Sarkozy by almost 20 points in the =olls, As he told me, he had planned to announce his candidacy on June =5th and he had no doubts he would be nominated by the Socialist Party =nd was confident that he would be elected the next President of =rance. His had planned to make only a brief stop over in New York =hat weekend to see his daughter because he had a crucial meeting at 3 =M on Sunday in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. As the =anaging director of the IMF, he had come up with plan, codenamed =93Comprehensive," to head off a Greek default on its sovereign debt. =But to make it work, he needed German support. "If Germany backed =t, the other European governments would follow," he said. Otherwise, =he crises "would quickly spiral out of control and spread to Spain, =taly and other Eurozone countries." So, he planned to spend less =han 24 hours in New York. But, as things turned out, he would not =each Berlin. Nor would he run for President. Instead, he would be =ocked up in the grisly prison cell under suicide watch at Bikers =sland jail in New York City, charged by a Grand Jury with sexual =ssault, and forced to resign as head of the IMF. By the time, the =rosecutors decided that the only witness against him had been =ntruthful and dropped all the charges against him, the scandal had so =esmirched his reputation that his political ambitions had been =ffectively ruined. Yet, despite all that he went through in those 11 months, he =eemed remarkably optimistic, even buoyant, when I met with him. He =ad recently provided his analysis of the consequences of globalization =t an economic gathering at Kiev in the Ukraine, and, as far as I could =etermine, remained deeply engaged in the same issues as when he had =resided over as head of the 178 nation IMF. He came into the hotel =ounge precisely on time. He was dressed in a dark suit and an =pen-necked blue shirt that showed off a deep tan. I expected that =e might have been depressed after all that has happened to him, =ncluding his being charged just 3 weeks early with complicity in a =rench prostitution ring, but he showed no visible signs of distress =uring the two hour interview. He was determined to clear his name and =eturn to work as an economist. He spoke softly in perfect English, =nswering all my questions with the sort of lucidity one rarely finds =n American politicians. He made it manifestly clear to me that he now =elieves that what happened at the Sofitel did not occur in isolation =rom his political challenge to Sarkozy and his UMP party. Even if =he incident had not been planned in advance to entrap him, he =uggested that there considerable evidence that he had emerged =ndicating that he had been under surveillance and that what occurred =as deliberately "shaped by those with a political agenda" to =erail his Presidential ambitions. If so, his political opponents =ngaged in an after-the-fact conspiracy to turn what he termed "a =onsensual encounter" into an international rape scandal. When he =as put in handcuffs at JFK airport, and made to undergo the infamous =93perp walk," he had no idea how this could have happened to him. =ut now 11 months later, he has seen the Sofitel's closed circuit =ideos, electronic key swipe records, cell phone records and other =vidence that showed a great deal of behind-the scene activities during =is arrival, stay, and departure at the French-owned hotel. He had =ong been suspicious that his communications were being intercepted =y his political opposition in France. When I asked him about the =asis of his suspicion, he told me that there were many blatant signs, =uch as a copy of one of his emails to his wife Anne Sinclair found =tuck in a copying machine used by his political opponents. He said it =ad been found by an associate's spouse who was temporarily working =t the headquarters of Sarkozy' UMP party. Had he taken precautions, = asked. He said that his security staff had devised a sophisticated =ncryption system for his seven phones, and which had been installed =arlier that spring. He then explained that all these encrypted phones =topped working. "I couldn't make call on them so I had the =ncryption removed." This was prior to his May trip to America. =e acknowledged with a shrug that he may have underestimated the =angers of parties intercepting his calls and emails, but to him the =onvenience of making calls outweighed the EFTA_R1_00079358 EFTA01769031 concern that Sarkozy's =eople might be listening to them. "I didn't think they could =ind anything that could stop me," he said, and the"they" in =he context of the conversation clearly referred to operatives working =or Sarkozy. The way he abruptly ended the encryption, and threw =aution to the wind, reflected his mind set of invulnerability. On =pril 28th 2011, just two weeks before coming to New York, he had lunch =ith the editors of Liberation in Paris. When they asked hm if there =as any way that his political opponents could derail his campaign, he =uipped back that one way would be to pay a woman to falsely accuse him =f raping her. Had that response been based on some adumbration he =ad that Sarkozy's forces might actually play the sex card to stop =im? He answered me that it was a joke, his gallows humor, then, =fter a moment reflection, he added "Perhaps I was politically naive =ut I simply did not believed that they would go that far ." Joke or not, there is little doubt that the incident at the Sofitel =hat fateful day was real. While it was not a subject he wanted to =escribe in detail, b he did not deny that he had a sexual encounter =ith the maid, Nafissatou Diallo. According to key swipe records, =he had entered his suite twice— not once-- between 12:06 and 12:07 =m. He said that he was just getting out of the shower and rushing to =et ready to meet his daughter for lunch at 12:30 PM. The bathroom was =t the end of an interior corridor from his bedroom, quite a distance =nto the suite. He said that when he stepped out of the bathroom , =till naked, he was surprised to see a statuesque women in a maid's =niform looking directly at him. He said it did not appear she had =ome to clean the suite since he was "certain" that she had no =leaning equipment with her. ( She had, she later told prosecutors, =ocked her cleaning cart in Room 2820, which is on the other side of =he elevator bank from the presidential suite. ) He said they had a =rief exchange of words and gestures. He did not recall the precise =ords but from her gestures, he assumed she was offering a sexual =ervice and that what followed, according to his account, was entirely =onsensual. The maid gave a very different version of the encounter to =he police: Diallo reported that he brutally sexually attacked her, =ragged her around the room, and forced her to perform fellatio twice. =So we have his story and her story. In any case, the encounter ended =bout 7 minutes later when DSK went to his phone at 12:13 pm to call =is daughter to tell her would be late. While DSK's version of encounter may seem bizarre, it was not the =nly time that a sexual liaison had occurred in the presidential suite. =When the police lab had examined the carpet in the section of corridor =near the bathroom, and found a stain containing his DNA mixed with =er saliva, it also found another other semen stains, including one =ontaining a mixture of semen and amylase, an enzyme in saliva, in the =ame area that the maid said she spat out the evidence. In that stain, =t identified DNA mixed with the saliva from three different people. =n all, it identified semen or saliva mixed with semen from seven =nknown individuals. So there had been considerable previous sexual =ctivity in this small area, some of which may have occurred shortly =efore DSK was assigned the VIP suite since the saliva enzyme would not =ikely survive multiple room cleanings. Moreover, this night VIP suite =as not always rented. I raised the issue of this DNA evidence with =5K, asking him if he had any idea the VIP suite may have been the =enue of other sexual liaisons. He replied that he knew nothing about =his activity, and it was only on his arrival that he learned that =otel on its own initiative had upgraded him to this $3000 a night =uite (It charged him the rate of $525, the rate for an ordinary =oom.) He assumed that the hotel favored him in this way because he =eaded the IMF (which booked the room). He further said that he had =ot seen anything out of the ordinary it, other than possibly some =ruit the hotel provided, until finding the maid in the bathroom =orridor. I asked when he saw the maid for the last time. He said that it was =fter he left the room to check out, which, according to the CCTV =ameras, was 12:28 PM. He was just getting into the elevator, towing =is suitcase behind him, when he saw her calmly looking at him from the =ther side of the elevator bank, looking towards him. He then got in =he elevator. (He arrived in the lobby at 12:27 PM). What he =earned afterwards, when the Sofitel's key car records were turned =ver to his lawyers, was that just after he got into the elevator, she =e-entered the suite that he had just left. I asked him why she =ould revisit the room. Could she be checking to if the departing guest =he suite had left her a gratuity. He replied "I left no money." He was arrested approximately 4 hours later at JFK airport. He =ad no idea that any complaint had been filed against him at the hotel, =e explained. He had himself provided his location when he called the =ofitel to find out if his missing Blackberry had been found. The next =ay he had another surprise. He had understood that his lawyers had =orked out a bail arrangement with the prosecutor, Cyrus Vance, to =elease him on bond, which is not unusual. But, some four hours later, =he deal was abruptly terminated. What had reportedly happened in =he interim was that Vance had received information bearing on the case =rom one or more French officials. At the bail hearing, the =ssistant DA said that unverified "additional information" [was] =eing provided on a daily basis regarding his [DSK's] behavior and =ackground." This gave a sinister cast to the case, and the judge =ollowed the prosecution recommendation and denied 2 EFTA_R1_00079359 EFTA01769032 bail. If this =nformation came from French officials, the purpose of this =ntervention may have been to assure that DSK was imprisoned. DSK was =auled off to prison on charges that were later thrown out. DSK winced in discussing the horrors he had experienced in New =ork. He was far more at ease talking about economics and politics =han semen stains at the Sofitel and his ordeal he suffered in the =merican justice system,. When I asked him why his political rival =arkozy had backed his appointment as managing director of the IMF, he =nswered "Sarkozy knew that his own weakness was economics. He =eeded me to give his administration credibility." As a former =conomics professor and Finance minister, he believed he had unique =ualification to deal with the Euro crisis. Since that January he had =een working to head off a Greek default. He believed it was =llusionary to believe the it could be solved by market forces , Greek =usterity measures, or some form of a technical solution. He had =ttempted to convince Chancellor Merkel that what was at stake was the =redibility of the Eurozone. If Greece defaulted, financial markets =ould lose confidence that the Euro Zone could act to avert other =overeign debt defaults. Interests rates would then soar on this debt, =aking it impossible for weaker members to refinance their debt. The =nly way this calamity could be avoided was if the stronger states in =he Eurozone provided a bail out, which DSK reckoned could be done for =nder $100 billion that Spring. "The Greek debt is a cancer that if =flowed to metastasize, would destroy credibility of Spain and =taly," he had argued. Even though the surgery, which involved using =ax payers funds for the bail out would be political anathema to =ermans, he hoped that Merkel would see there was no other choice. By =ay, he still was not fully convinced that she would go along, but he =hoped that at their scheduled meeting on May 15th. he could persuade =ere to act If he did, he was confident that with German help, the =reek crisis could be nipped in the bud. He added wistfully,"Now we =ill never know." When he concluded the discussion, I was deeply impressed by his =enetrating analysis of the "trilemma,"as he called it, faced by =he Eurozone. Here was a man well versed in both economics and =olitics who would have been likely elected President of France next =unday [May 6] if not for a bizarre incident in the president suite of =he Sofitel in New York City. Cheers Ed Epstein ebooks at http://amzn.to/ndfiNf <?xml version=.0" encoding=TF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <pi ist version=.0"> <dict> <key>date-last-viewed</key> <integer>0</integer> <key>date-received</key> <integer>1335195473</integer> <key>flags</key> <integer>8623750145</integer> <key>gmail-label-ids</key> <array> <integer>22</integer> <integer>2</integer> </array> <key>remote-id</key> <string>218862</string> </dict> </plist> 3 EFTA_R1_00079360 EFTA01769033