Comment on Strauss-Kahn denies violence in sex assault cases

share: digg facebook twitter PARIS (AP) — Dominique Strauss-Kahn broke his silence four months after a New York hotel maid accused him of sexual assault, calling his encounter with the woman a "moral failing" he deeply regrets, but insisting in an interview on French television Sunday that no violence was involved. Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund and a one-time top presidential contender in his native France, also denied using violence against a French writer who claims he tried to rape her in a separate 2003 incident. Though he didn't rule out a future return to politics, the man once widely regarded as the Socialist party's best hope at beating France's incumbent conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy said he needed to take time to think about his future. The writer, Tristane Banon, has maintained she and Strauss-Kahn ended up tussling on the floor during an interview in an empty apartment, with the politician trying to open her jeans and bra and putting his fingers in her mouth and underwear. "The version that was presented (by Banon) is an imaginary version, a slanderous version," Strauss-Kahn said, adding that "no act of aggression, no violence" had taken place between the two. Because a police investigation into the claims is ongoing, Strauss-Kahn declined to say anything more about the matter. In addition to his legal team's fees, Strauss-Kahn was also initially subject to extensive and expensive bond conditions, including security measures estimated at about $200,000 a month, on top of the $50,000-a-month rent on a town house in New York's trendy TriBeCa neighborhood.