Strauss-Kahn May Claim Consent

The New York Post reports:

France's leading presidential candidate may have pounced on a Manhattan hotel maid -- but she wanted it, his lawyer asserted in court yesterday, hinting at what could be an explosive defense.

"The evidence, we believe, will not be consistent with a forcible encounter," said Ben Brafman, the high-powered lawyer of IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, at the suspect's sensational arraignment in a packed criminal courtroom.

A source close to the defense later told The Post, "There may well have been consent."

Disturbing information also emerged about Strauss-Kahn's behavior after he left the hotel -- including his coolly having lunch with his daughter, who lives in Manhattan, at a restaurant about a half-hour after the alleged attack.

The developments came as an exhausted and humiliated-looking Strauss-Kahn -- a financial jet-setter and world politico -- was ordered held without bail by a leery Judge Melissa Jackson, who noted that he had been caught just in the nick of time at JFK Airport. ...