New York Post Subject of Suit
New York Post Subject of Suit. REUTERS

Attorneys for the maid who accused former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of rape sued the New York Post and four of its reporters for libel Tuesday for a story claiming she is a prostitute.

The alleged victim, 32, a native of Guinea, claims the Post published a serious of false stories in an effort to “bolster its rapidly plunging sales.”

The lawsuit filed in State Supreme Court in the Bronx, N.Y., seeks damages to be determined by a judge at trial for articles lawyers said the Post ought to have known before publishing.

“We stand by our reporting,” said Suzanne Halpin, a spokeswoman for the paper.

Prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office raised questions about the woman’s credibility before Justice Michael Obus during a hearing where he released Strauss-Kahn on his own recognizance.

In a letter made public Friday, assistant district attorney’s Joan Illuzi-Orbon and Artie McConnell told defense lawyers the maid had lied about her whereabouts in the minutes after the alleged incident.

Additionally, she allegedly lied on her application for asylum saying she had been gang-raped, her husband killed.

The article, published Saturday, said the maid “was doing double duty as a prostitute, collecting cash on the side from male guests.

A follow up story Sunday the paper said she “continued to work as a prostitute in a Brooklyn hotel where she was stashed by prosecutors.

All of these statements are false, have subjected the plaintiff to humiliation, scorn and ridicule throughout the world by falsely portraying her as a prostitute or as a woman who trades her body for money and they constitute defamation and libel per se, her attorney, Kenneth Thompson, said in court papers filed Tuesday.