Strauss-Kahn countersues hotel maid over ‘damage to his reputation’

Dominique Strauss-Kahn has filed a $1 million countersuit against the hotel maid who accused him of sexual assault, costing him his job and any chance of being elected president of France.

New York police arrested the then head of the International Monetary Fund a year ago when maid Nafissatou Diallo, 33, accused him of forcing her into a sex act and trying to rape her in the Sofitel Hotel in Manhattan. Prosecutors later dropped charges after her credibility was questioned.

The countersuit was filed late on Monday, the anniversary of the incident. Strauss-Kahn, 63, denied the allegations, saying the sex was consensual. Diallo is suing him for damages in the New York borough of the Bronx, where she lived at the time.

Strauss-Kahn alleges she intentionally made a false report to law enforcement authorities. He seeks damages for his arrest, being held on Rikers Island and under house arrest in Manhattan, for losing his IMF job and for harm to his reputation.