Former IMF Chief Granted Bail in Sex Case
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Good evening. We begin tonight with breaking news in the sex scandal that has drawn worldwide attention. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, who is accused of sexually assaulting a hotel maid, will be out of jail in just a few hours. He was granted bail late this afternoon, but he was taken back to New York City's Riker's Island jail tonight and expected to be released tomorrow. Strauss-Kahn was in a Manhattan courtroom today as the terms of his bail were revealed. And they are stiff. He must put up $1 million in cash and post bond of $5 million. He also had to surrender his travel documents, which his lawyer said he had already done. And he has to agree to home detention here in Manhattan. Strauss -- he lives in Washington. Strauss-Kahn's lawyer argued that he is not a flight risk. And even though he was arrested on a flight about to leave for Paris, the lawyer said it was a prescheduled flight, not a last-minute booking to try to escape the law.</s>WILLIAM TAYLOR, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It's undisputed that the reason that the police knew his whereabouts is because he called the hotel, which is the scene of this incident, from JFK Airport, to inquire if the hotel had located his cell phone. Well, the hotel advised that it had and asked him his whereabouts, on which he promptly told them. Indeed, he called the hotel a second time, called security a second time to advise that the plane was boarding and to urge the hotel delivery people to please promptly bring him his cell phone.</s>COOPER: Well, before the bail hearing got under way, Strauss- Kahn was formerly indicted on seven charges, including sexual abuse and attempt to commit rape. He's accused, as you know, of attacking a maid in a New York on Saturday. The prosecutor opposed bail, arguing that the evidence against Strauss-Kahn is strong.</s>JOHN MCCONNELL, ASSISTANT DEFENSE ATTORNEY: The complainant in this case has offered a compelling and unwavering story about what occurred in the defendant's room. She made immediate outcries to multiple witnesses, both to hotel staff and to police. And the -- the quick response by the hotel staff and law enforcement did help apprehend the defendant before his flight to France took off.</s>COOPER: Late last night, Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned his post at the IMF and in a letter to his executive board denied all allegations against him. CNN's Deb Feyerick is here with more. The bail ruling, what does it stipulate?</s>DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's interesting. Basically under the terms of bail, he has -- his wife has rented an apartment at a so far undisclosed location and they're going to stay there together. He's going to be on home detention, monitored by a private company. He will be picking up the costs. It is $200,000 a month, that's what he's going to be paying. He's going to have to wear an electronic bracelet. There will be at least one armed security guard on the premises with him at all times. If he goes out for example to meet with his lawyers, if he have to go to religious ceremonies, something like that, the armed guard will accompany him. He's not going to be wandering all over New York City. And he is going to have to check in with the court. Usually the way the court does it is they make sure that he's calling from a particular land line inside the apartment. Unclear whether he'll have to check in one, two, three times a day but usually it's a set time.</s>COOPER: And what is the indictment? What have you learned from the indictment about the alleged crime?</s>FEYERICK: Well, this is interesting. I mean the indictment puts to rest some of the more salacious pieces of information that appeared originally in the complaint. The complaint had a host of information in it to support the charges as they had been laid out. And the complaint really alleged all manners of sex. The indictment essentially charges Dominique Strauss-Kahn with forcing his house -- forcing the housekeeper to perform a sex act on him. It also accuses him of allegedly attempting to have sexual intercourse. DSK's lawyers have said that he will plead not guilty. Two things to note and that is the district attorney in announcing the indictment, he made a very interesting distinction. He said, quote, "Under American law, these are extremely serious charges", pointing out American law. He also said that "these were non-consensual forced sex acts", probably referring to the fact that Strauss-Kahn's lawyers have suggested that the evidence will not show this was a forced encounter.</s>COOPER: Right.</s>FEYERICK: Also, this press release Anderson, well, what was interesting in announcing the indictment, it was done in three languages. It was released in Spanish, in English and also of course in French.</s>COOPER: Well, because of worldwide interest obviously in this case.</s>FEYERICK: Exactly.</s>COOPER: I want to bring in also Jeff Toobin, CNN's senior analyst, and noted defense attorney Mark Geragos, as well. Mark, what do you make of the case against this man? How would you try to go about defending him?</s>MARK GERAGOS, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, I -- I think you just have to wait first. And I'm sure Ben is going to wait first and find out what the evidence is. He needs to see what the --</s>COOPER: Ben Brafman is the defense attorney.</s>GERAGOS: -- yes right, Ben is the, I assume, the lead lawyer here. And he's going to wait and see what they have before he decides how is going to approach this. He's not going to jump to any conclusions on this idea that the prosecutor came out and announced that it was -- was not consensual and it's a serious crime. You know, it seems like they're already in a position where they're doing some pushback. I don't know why. If they have such a strong case, I don't know why they're so defensive. But I -- I would expect that Ben will be circumspect until he sees everything that the prosecutor has before he reveals anything.</s>COOPER: The -- the defense though, Mark, has tried to kind of get out the details that look, this flight was prearranged, that the notion that he suddenly booked this flight and scram from the airport is not accurate.</s>GERAGOS: Well, they have to do that, because of the bail hearing and what the grounds are for granting the bail whether he's a flight risk. The prosecution tried to paint a portrait that this was somebody who was grabbing the first plane to France. They invoked the two words that every French defendant fears most, Roman Polanski, and then argued that this person is never going to come back because he's never going to be able to be extradited. All they've got to do then and what I assume happened here, is show that it was booked, that it was booked prior to this incident, and that he was the one, as Mr. Taylor was saying just then, that he had called twice. He was the one who alerted them to where he was that he was at JFK. If this was somebody who was trying to flee, he's certainly not going to call for his cell phone. He would have just got on the flight and he would be gone and they never would have seen him again. So I think that you do have to push back when you're talking about somebody's liberty. And the idea that it was no bail for a couple of days is ludicrous, because this is not a murder case; this is not a no-bail case. This is a case where he should have received bail and did receive bail today.</s>COOPER: And Jeff, last night on the program around this time you predicted he would receive bail likely and that -- and that he would resign from the IMF, both of which have happened. But you say you think he got lucky with this bail.</s>JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: This was a close, close question. There are judges in that courthouse who definitely would have denied him bail. I mean start with the fact that he is not an American citizen. Most American citizens, most non-American citizens who are arrested in the United States do not get out on bail particularly those charged with serious felonies. He is very fortunate that he has the resources to put -- put together a package with home detention. I mean, how many people in the world can afford $200,000 a month for -- a monitor, electronic and individual monitoring? So he is very lucky. And also consider how long it's going to be until trial, two months, three months, maybe even longer. All those months he would have spent in Randall's Island. Instead he's going to be with his wife, eating the food he wants, seeing the people he wants, in an apartment in Manhattan. And it makes a huge difference in his life.</s>COOPER: Mark, when you're representing a client like this, I mean how much -- how time consuming does this become for the client? Is this, I mean last night Jeff was talking about look, he needs to dedicate a lot of time focusing on -- on this case moving forward. Is that -- is that what you found with clients?</s>GERAGOS: In this case, given the stakes here, there's no question. He's going to -- he's going to spend 24-7 on this case. There is no way that he's going to -- that he would have been able to retain his position, even if released on bail. So this is something where he's going to have to dedicate his life to getting out of this. I mean, for all intents and purposes, he's facing a tantamount to a life sentence here. He needs to clear his name. He needs to defend this case. He needs to meet with his lawyers. He needs to do everything he can possible. This is going to be an all encompassing, all consuming case for both him and frankly for the lawyers.</s>COOPER: What do we know about his visitors at Riker's?</s>FEYERICK: Well, the visitors -- it's interesting, he -- the prosecution was arguing he should only be allowed one visitor aside from immediate family, but the -- the defense lawyer said no, he's got a lot of friends. They want to come visit him; they want to come see him. You know, one interesting thing, Anderson, watching him in court, he seemed a much more relaxed. When he saw his wife, he smiled, he later blew her a kiss. He was much more pulled together than he had been when we saw him earlier in the week. He had shaved, he was wearing a blazer.</s>COOPER: Right.</s>FEYERICK: So there does seem to be a little bit of change in the dynamics. You have to keep in mind who this guy is, who he's used to hanging out with. This is the guy who is credited with saving Greece and Portugal and Ireland. So he knows diplomacy, he knows negotiations and it seemed to me -- and Jeff, you can correct me -- that that he seemed to have a better feel for what was ahead, what was to come, and comfort being surrounded with the people he had.</s>COOPER: Well, the first 48 hours have to be just like being hit with a truck.</s>TOOBIN: Well obviously, it -- it helps to be a public figure. I mean I remember watching O.J. Simpson in the courtroom. You know, he was a public figure. He had presence. He knew what it was like to be looked at. I think Strauss-Kahn is going to have a similar presence in the courtroom. Now, if the DNA evidence, if the hair and fiber evidence incriminates him, none of that stuff matters, but it certainly helps. And if I can just add one thing --</s>COOPER: Yes.</s>TOOBIN: I said Randall's Island; that's soccer fields. It's Riker's Island; that's the prison.</s>COOPER: I played on some of those soccer fields as a kid; they can get pretty tough. There's a lot of glass in that -- not much grass left out on Randall's Island.</s>TOOBIN: Now, it's been fixed now.</s>COOPER: Oh has it. I didn't know that.</s>TOOBIN: Yes.</s>COOPER: Yes that was back in the 80's. Mark, do you agree with Jeff that it actually helps to be a public figure in terms of knowing how to present yourself in court?</s>GERAGOS: Well, it certainly doesn't hurt. This is somebody who knows how to carry himself. He's somebody who has been in situations where he has -- he knows how to handle himself and that beats the heck out of somebody who doesn't. And the fact that he has a high profile job and some -- by some accounts probably one of the most high profile jobs in the world, certainly is not going to hurt him. At the same time, the things that do hurt him is that you're going to have prosecutors and judges who are going to, with all of the media attention, try to make sure that he never seems like he's getting a break, so to speak. I don't think that anybody else is going to have the amount of attention that he has paid to their case in New York at this time. And so it's a double-edge sword, if you will.</s>COOPER: And certainly for -- for the alleged victim coming forward, you know, this is a woman whose life is now going to be changed and if she has to confront him in court that will obviously be incredibly overwhelming.</s>TOOBIN: The trial, if there is a trial, will be incredibly stressful for her. I mean, there's one big decision the defense has to make, they really only have two choices. Is the defense consent, or is the defense, I wasn't there at the time? You can't -- you can't argue both.</s>COOPER: Right.</s>TOOBIN: And that's why they have to just sort of see what the evidence is, talk to their client and then we'll see how it goes.</s>COOPER: Deb Feyerick, Jeff Toobin, thanks very much. Mark Geragos, it's great to have you on the program. Thank you. Let us know what you think we're on Facebook, follow me on Twitter @AndersonCooper. I'll try to be tweeting some tonight, although, we have a very busy night. We've got a lot ahead. Up next, more breaking news; we're going to tell you about criminal charges against a home-grown advocate for terror; a Muslim extremist here in New York,</s>YOUNES ABDULLAH MOHAMMED, REVOLUTION MUSLIM: We're commanded to terrorize the disbelievers. And this is a religion like I said --</s>DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT CORRESPONDENT: You're commanded to terrorize the disbelievers?</s>MOHAMMED: And the Koran says very clearly in the Arabic language</s>GRIFFIN: So you're commanded --</s>MOHAMMED: terrorize them.</s>COOPER: And later, Sarah Palin says leave Newt Gingrich alone. She slams the media -- no surprise there -- for playing gotcha. For asking him about changing Medicare and dings him for not being ready for it. But he's still trying to contain the damage his answer did to his presidential hopes and his explanations and denials are, well, you can judge for yourself. We'll tell you what he's saying today and how it differs from what he said on Tuesday and then on Monday and on Sunday. "Keeping Them Honest", we'll talk to Paul Begala and Rich Galen also tonight.