The Guardian have a nice exclusive today, revealing some details from Edward Jay Epstein's new book on last year's Dominique Strauss Kahn scandal "Three Days In May".

However, we still have our doubts. While the headline reads "DSK: New York sex scandal orchestrated by political opponents", the article the goes on to say (emphasis ours):


So the weird sexual encounter with a hotel maid that resulted in blood on the bedsheets wasn't part of the set up?

In DSK's version, he was under official surveillance by Sarkozy-allied forces who were "intercepting phone calls and making sure [victim Nafissatou Diallo] went to the New York police, thus sparking an international scandal".

Of course, it's fair to note that if the scandal hadn't happened, perhaps French history would be very different. At the time DSK was polling higher than Francois Hollande in the battle for the French Socialist leadership — and it was looking very much like the French elections we're in the thick of would be between DSK and Sarkozy.

Given the recent election results, we can't help but wonder if a Sarkozy-led scandal would have been a bit more effective once DSK had actually won the Socialist nomination. It's not like they would have been lacking material.