Mr. Strauss-Kahn is entitled to the presumption of innocence, and his attorney says he will plead not guilty. Some in the French press and even a French government minister are suggesting that the 62-year-old Socialist Party panjandrum may have been set up by his rivals. The charges are stunning enough—and French politics is strange enough—that we suppose anything is possible, but such a conspiracy would have to include a large number of players.
WSJ Europe editorial page editor Brian Carney explains the policy impact of Dominique Strauss-Kahn's arrest.
The facts of the case as reported by New York police so far do not look promising for the IMF managing director. The woman who entered to clean the Frenchman's $3,000-a-night Sofitel suite at midday on Saturday reported the incident immediately. She told police that Mr. Strauss-Kahn emerged naked from the bathroom, pursued her down a hallway and pulled her into the bedroom. She escaped and he then chased her again and dragged her into a bathroom.
In other words, this is not a case in which misunderstandings about mutual consent are at issue. The charge is the unlawful imprisonment and attempted rape of a vulnerable hotel employee trying to do her job. Police also say that Mr. Strauss-Kahn fled the hotel in a rush, leaving behind his cellphone and other personal items. Police were impressed enough with the facts to take Mr. Strauss-Kahn from the first-class section of an Air France aircraft lest he leave U.S. jurisdiction.
The IMF declined to comment yesterday, but its board should do some soul-searching about the pass it previously gave Mr. Strauss-Kahn. The married Frenchman pursued and had an affair with a senior fund economist not long after taking the top job in 2007. After her husband blew the whistle, the fund board let Mr. Strauss-Kahn off with a wrist slap that he had committed a "serious error of judgment."
The IMF board's forbearance contrasts with the way the World Bank pushed out American Paul Wolfowitz as bank president on the pretext that he had secured a raise for his girl friend, though Mr. Wolfowitz had kept bank officials informed from start to finish and had not violated bank policy. The boards of both institutions are dominated by Europeans, who deployed a double standard for Mr. Strauss-Kahn as one of their own.
Especially pungent in retrospect is the report by a consultant to the board at the time that "going forward" the IMF should consider whether its managing director should be held to a "higher standard of conduct" than the staff. A. Shakour Shaalan, the longest-serving member of the board, announced at the time that he had personally told Mr. Strauss-Kahn that "this should not happen again."
We'll see if those tolerant IMF officials consider the New York charges to be consistent with their admonitions. Yesterday the fund named its number two official, the capable U.S. economist John Lipsky, as acting managing director. Under Mr. Strauss-Kahn, the IMF promoted multiple European bailouts and we doubt that will change.
The charges are roiling France, where Mr. Strauss-Kahn was the favorite to be the Socialist nominee for President next year and was even leading in the polls against Nicolas Sarkozy. The French are legendary for nonchalance toward the sexual appetites of their politicians, and they sniffed at Americans who disapproved of Bill Clinton when he lied under oath about sex. But we doubt even the French will be blasé about assaulting a hotel chamber maid.
Mr. Strauss-Kahn's humiliation would leave the Socialists without a presidential front-runner. It could help Martine Aubry, the party chief and godmother of the 35-hour work week, who remains as hardcore a Socialist as there is these days. That is not a winning platform. Mr. Sarkozy, who supported Mr. Strauss-Kahn's candidacy for the top IMF job in part to get him out of the country, would appear again to be the favorite.
As we neared our deadline Sunday, we heard different views on whether Mr. Strauss-Kahn has diplomatic immunity because he works for an international organization headquartered in Washington. The New York police say he does not. If Mr. Strauss-Kahn is innocent, we assume he'd rather clear his name in court than escape accountability by returning to France. For his sake, for the sake of his accuser, and for the integrity of American justice, the world needs to see that this case is prosecuted transparently and well.
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