Nafissatou Diallo (L) and Robin Roberts of "Good Morning America"
*The New York hotel maid who accused former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of attempting to rape her said in an interview published in Newsweek that he appeared as a “crazy man” and attacked her when she entered his room.
Nafissatou Diallo also gave the newsmagazine and ABC News permission to identify her by name, reports Reuters.
The magazine interview marks the first time the 32-year-old Guinean immigrant to the United States has publicly spoken to the media since she alleged that Strauss-Kahn emerged naked from the bathroom of his luxury suite on May 14 and forced her to perform oral sex.
“I want justice. I want him to go to jail,” she said in an interview with Robin Roberts on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” [Scroll down to watch the "GMA" report. The full interview will air Tuesday on "Nightline."]
“I want him to know that there is some places you cannot use your money, you cannot use your power when you do something like this,” Diallo told Roberts.
One of Diallo’s attorneys, Douglas Wigdor, told Reuters she has come forward to let the world know she is not a “shakedown artist or a prostitute.”
“She’s being attacked … and she thought it was important to put a name and face to her account,” Wigdor said.
She also plans to file a civil lawsuit soon, which means her name would become public, he added.
ABC reported Diallo also acknowledged “mistakes” but said that should not stop prosecutors from going forward.
“I never want to be in public but I have no choice,” she told ABC News, adding “Now, I have to be in public. I have to, for myself. I have to tell the truth.”
Diallo, who Newsweek said had agreed to be photographed for this week’s edition, said she saw Strauss-Kahn appear naked in front of her when she opened the door to his suite. He was like “a crazy man to me,” she said.
“You’re beautiful,” she reported Strauss-Kahn as saying, and said he attacked her despite her protestations.
Strauss-Kahn, 62, has repeatedly denied all the charges against him. In a statement on Sunday, his lawyers called the interview a last-ditch effort by the maid and her lawyers to extract money from the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund.
She is “the first accuser in history to conduct a media campaign to persuade a prosecutor to pursue charges against a person from whom she wants money,” lawyers Benjamin Brafman and William Taylor said. “Her lawyers and public relations consultants have orchestrated an unprecedented number of media events and rallies to bring pressure on the prosecutors in this case after she had to admit her extraordinary efforts to mislead them.”
Her credibility was thrown into question when Manhattan prosecutors revealed Diallo told authorities numerous lies, including fabricating a story about being gang-raped in Guinea in order to gain U.S. asylum. She also changed details of her story about what happened following the purported assault.
Wigdor said Diallo has worried that prosecutors would drop the charges. “That has been a concern, but we’re all hopeful that the district attorney’s going to do the right thing,” he said.
After arriving from Guinea in 2003, Diallo, who is illiterate, told Newsweek she spent years braiding hair before working at a bodega in New York City’s Bronx borough. As a maid at the Sofitel hotel, she received $25 an hour plus tips.
Diallo said her husband in Guinea died of an illness but did not provide further details. Roughly two years after being raped by two soldiers in Conakry, the Guinean capital, she fled with her daughter, now 15, to the United States, where she said she has few close friends.
Following the alleged attack, Diallo spent weeks in protective custody, holed up in a hotel with her daughter.
“She’s been in seclusion for over two months. She hasn’t been able to take a walk in the park,” her lawyer said.
French newspaper France Soir reported in a front page headline that David Koubbi, the lawyer for French writer Tristane Banon, who has accused Strauss-Kahn of a 2003 sexual assault, had met with Diallo. It added only that he “was impressed by her courage.”
I believe this lady 10 zillion% I knew from day one that these slippery defense attorneys would paint her as a prostitute and shake down artist just to save this creeps hide. Now here is a man who is among the MOST INFLUENTIAL in the world in reference to international finance and a multi-millionaire and a poor, illiterate West African immigrant who makes $25 a hour as a maid scrubbing floors and emptying chamber pots. He hired an army of legal experts to find as much dirt on her as they could to tarnish her image in the world media. Sure, she made some errors by talking to her male friend who wss incarcerated and may have provided false information on her passport application in order to gain entry into the U. S. BUT does that give this super-rich BASTURD the right to sexually attack her? The prosecutors in NYC will let Dominic walk because the man makes TOOO much money and has TOOO many high-level governmental and financial contacts. I’m surprised that the African-American community nation-wide hasn’t been very vocal. She IS one of us! THE Basturd hit on the lady at the receptionist desk and invited her to his room and she declined the offer and already sexually attacked a French T V woman in Paris that he has to face charges in reference, but he’ll still walk. There ain’t no justice for the poor…just contempt!!! Fanteeking
Cosign David.
Part of the reason I have such a dislike for the Prosecution Office is because in most cases they are not seeking Justice for the victims, they are seeking a Win for their office. Therefore they don’t take cases like this one to court unless they feel it is a slam dunk.
That being said, it doesn’t matter if she may have told some lies in her pass. We all have lied about one thing or another in our lifetimes. Strauss needs to pay for the crime he committed against this woman. I saw her interview with Robin on GMA this morning, & she was VERY credible in her description of the events that took place during this attack. I don’t believe for a second that this was a consensual sexual encounter.
If the state of NY will not prosecute Strauss in the Criminal justice system, then I say by all means Sue His Ass in Civil court.
Its easy to say that you believe her. But in an era of public attention and dissent, lying that u had been gang raped before does not make you a very credible witness.
I wonder how he forced her to slo neck him.
Oh and 24/hr even in nyc is not poor.
This woman is a known and confessed liar. Was she lieing then or now. If you can’t trust the messenger, you can’t trust the message.