GLOBAL News - The legal team defending former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn against sexual assault charges has informally sought public relations advice from a Washington consulting firm run by former CIA officers and U.S. diplomats, Reuters has learned.
TD International is the same company Strauss-Kahn, then a private citizen, hired in 2007 to advise him on how to navigate international and Washington politics in his bid to become managing director of the International Monetary Fund.
Documents filed in 2008 with the Foreign Agents Registration section of the U.S. Justice Department show that Strauss-Kahn, who is French, retained TD International as his "U.S.-based communications resource."
Strauss-Kahn, 62, who was seen as a front-runner for the French presidency until his arrest, has been charged with trying to rape a hotel housekeeper in New York. He has denied the charges and his lawyer has said he will plead not guilty.
A person familiar with the work TD International did for Strauss-Kahn in 2007 said his representatives consulted the firm informally after his arrest last Saturday and asked for advice related to his predicament.
If the firm at some point becomes formally involved in his defense, the source said, its role will be in helping other Strauss-Kahn advisors, including Paris-based public relations experts, engage in "crisis management."
But the source, who asked for anonymity, said the firm had not been formally engaged. A lawyer for Strauss-Kahn did not respond to a request for comment.
A spokesman for TD International told Reuters on Friday: "We don't comment on client relationships and activities. However, our past work with Dominique Strauss-Kahn is accurately reflected in (Justice Department) filings."
WORKING THE MEDIA
A contract between TD International and Strauss-Kahn, dated July 18, 2007, shows he hired the firm to "conduct a specific public relations campaign" and "work is to begin immediately and continue until ascendancy of client to head of IMF."
The contract says Strauss-Kahn was to pay the firm 20,000 euros, then equivalent to about $27,600.
Global News - Strauss-Kahn was being questioned after a 32-year-old chambermaid complained that a naked Strauss-Kahn sexually attacked her in his Manhattan hotel room, the police said. The maid, who said she broke free, suffered minor injuries, police said.
The development creates immediate uncertainty for the Washington-based IMF, which has been playing an important role in keeping the global economy stable in the wake of the financial crisis.
It also promises to stir up politics in France, where Strauss-Kahn is widely believed to be considering challenging French president Nicolas Sarkozy in next year’s election. Polls have shown he has strong odds of defeating Sarkozy.
An IMF spokesman had no immediate comment.
About 10 minutes before Air France Flight 23 was to take off , officers with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey boarded the plane and removed Strauss-Kahn, the authorities said. They did not handcuff him.
The officers were acting at the behest of the New York police and turned over the French national to the police shortly thereafter. He was not placed under arrest, the authorities said. The Associated press reported that a top police spokesman said that the Strauss-Kahn had been staying at the Sofitel near Times Square.
An economist and lawyer who has gained prominence while captaining the IMF through one of the world’s worst financial crises, Strauss-Kahn joined the organization in 2007 with the support of many European nations and the United States.
He had served as France’s finance minister and is the subject of intense speculation in France that he will declare his candidacy for president as a member of the Socialist Party. He unsuccessfully ran for his party’s nomination in the last election.
