Strauss-Kahn resigns from IMF, alleged victim’s lawyer calls NY Post HIV story ‘outrageous’

No surprises here.

This statement was issued late Wednesday night:

IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn Resigns
Press Release No. 11/187
May 18, 2011

Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn today informed the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of his intention to resign as Managing Director with immediate effect. Mr. Strauss-Kahn made the following statement in a formal letter of resignation to the Board:

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Board:

It is with infinite sadness that I feel compelled today to present to the Executive Board my resignation from my post of Managing Director of the IMF.

I think at this time first of my wife—whom I love more than anything—of my children, of my family, of my friends.

I think also of my colleagues at the Fund; together we have accomplished such great things over the last three years and more.

To all, I want to say that I deny with the greatest possible firmness all of the allegations that have been made against me.

I want to protect this institution which I have served with honor and devotion, and especially—especially—I want to devote all my strength, all my time, and all my energy to proving my innocence.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn

The Fund will communicate in the near future on the Executive Board’s process of selecting a new Managing Director. Meanwhile, Mr. John Lipsky remains Acting Managing Director.

Strauss-Kahn is currently at Rikers Island in New York, while his lawyer seeks his release on $1 million bond.

Meanwhile, a lawyer for the alleged rape victim in the Strauss-Kahn case is knocking down a story published by the New York Post on Wednesday, which claimed the 32-year-old woman who says she was attacked by the former IMF chief in his hotel room was living in an apartment that only was rented to people with HIV.

From the New York Daily News:

The Manhattan maid who accused a French big-wig of sexual assault is not HIV positive – and did not consent to sex in his midtown hotel room, her lawyer said Wednesday.

“Absolutely not,” attorney Jeffrey Shapiro said on the “Today” show when asked about a published report saying the 32-year-old victim lives in Bronx housing set aside for people with AIDS or HIV.

“She lived in a sublet apartment in the Bronx,” Shapiro said. “That’s outrageous.”

He also said the woman was ready to testify before a Manhattan grand jury Wednesday about what happened in politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s room in the Sofitel New York hotel.

Attorneys for the jailed International Monetary Fund chief said there was no evidence of a “forcible encounter.”

“I think that when a jury hears her testimony and sees her in person, when finally she’s going to come public with this and tell her story, I think that their claims of consensual sex or encounters” will be exposed as bogus, Shapiro said.

“There is nothing consensual about what took place in that hotel room.”

Details of the alleged attack surfaced Wednesday. The alleged victim is a Muslim immigrant from Guinea.

As of late Wednesday, the Post, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch, had not updated or retracted the HIV story.