Could
it be that the party of French President Nicolas Sarkozy (left) set up
IMF
Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn (right) when he visited a French-owned
hotel
in New York? U.S. journalist Jay Epstein claims in the New York Review
of Books that the proof was in the hands of prosecutors.
Le Depeche, France
French Ruling
Party Calls DSK Conspiracy Charges 'Pure Fantasy'
“This is
pure fantasy … I’ve read the article written by Mr. Epstein. What did he say?
That DSK lost his phone? Mislaying one’s phone doesn’t mean there is a
conspiracy.”
Investigative reporter Jay Edward Epstein has single-handedly reignited the Dominique Strauss-Kahn controversy by claiming that evidence exists proving that last May, France's ruling party set up the former IMF chief while he was visiting New York.
Yesterday, following an
investigation by an American journalist who claims there was a plan to
damage Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Minister of the Interior Claude Guéant of the
ruling Union for a Popular Movement [UMP] and
Accor’s Sofitel Hotel chain all vigorously denied that a “conspiracy” was
hatched against the one-time favorite for the French presidency.
The journalist, Jay Edward Epstein, revived
the DSK saga this weekend, reopening questions about the possibility that a
trap was set for the former IMF chief at the Sofitel hotel in Manhattan last
May 14, where he was accused of having raped a chambermaid. In particular, this
particular investigator claims that Dominique Strauss-Kahn had been alerted by
a friend working at the UMP on the morning of May 14 that his BlackBerry had likely
been hacked, with one of his private emails having been read by the party of
Nicolas Sarkozy [the UMP].
“This is pure fantasy!” replied
Interior Minister Claude Guéant during Europe 1's The Great Appointment
program [Le grand rendez-vous].He added: “I’ve read the article written
by Mr. Epstein. What did he say? That DSK lost his phone? Mislaying one’s phone
doesn’t mean there is a conspiracy.” UMP Secretary-General Jean-François Copé
also reacted sharply on Sunday, repeating his prior rejection of “the idea of a
plot” against DSK as “grotesque.” He also ruled out, however, taking legal
action over the assertions.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
Convinced that there was a
desire to “put paid to” the candidacy of the Socialist favorite for the 2012
French elections, Epstein also claimed that the New York attorney general had
video surveillance footage from the Sofitel showing two men congratulating themselves
after having heard the chambermaid make her allegations against DSK. The
Sofitel yesterday criticized the journalist’s work, denying that the attitude
of the two men had anything to do with the Strauss-Kahn affair. As far as
former police officer René-Georges Querry, who was the hotel group’s chief of
security - and who on May 14 alerted Élysée National Intelligence Coordinator
Ange Mancini to the unfolding events - he has declared himself “completely
unaware of any operation to destabilize DSK,” and labeled the theory of a
conspiracy a “fantasy.”
Club DSK Wants Inquiry
Club DSK [set up to support
Strauss-Kahn’s candidacy] said yesterday that the public prosecutor’s office
should now investigate since, according to the group, Jay Edward Epstein's allegations
“confirm the possibility of a political trap, the aim of which was to spy on,
indeed to eliminate ... the main competitor to be head of state - in collusion
with the ruling party and a global French enterprise (hotel group Accor)!”
Club DSK added: “The public
prosecutor’s office must seize the items it needs as evidence in order to obtain
the records of telephone calls and e-mails between the Élysée, the UMP and New
York on May 14, 2011, where it seems clear that such messages - at first denied
but later admitted - will provide new evidence in the Sofitel affair.” The
group also wants a parliamentary commission to be created, in order to carry
out a "fully transparent inquiry.”
