NEW YORK – Smiling faintly as he walked out of court, former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was released from house arrest Friday after prosecutors acknowledged serious questions about the credibility of the hotel maid who accused him of sexual assault.

The charges against him stand — for now, at least. But weeks after saying it had a strong case that was only getting stronger, the district attorney’s office was on the defensive. So was the housekeeper’s attorney, who continued to insist that Strauss-Kahn had violently abused the woman.

An attorney for Strauss-Kahn, meanwhile, called the turn of events “a great relief.” The case underscores “how easy it is for people to be charged with serious crimes and for there to be a rush to judgment,” William W. Taylor said.

Strauss-Kahn, 62, had been confined for weeks to a luxury New York City townhouse on $6 million bail after his arrest on attempted rape charges that forced his resignation as head of the International Monetary Fund and appeared to destroy any hope he had of running for president of France next year.

But on Friday, defense lawyers went into court to ask that his bail conditions be eased, with prosecutors’ assent.

“The strength of the case has been affected by the substantial credibility issues regarding” the accuser, Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon told the judge, who then canceled Strauss-Kahn’s bail and most of the other restrictions.

According to prosecutors, the woman admitted she lied to a grand jury about what she did immediately after the alleged attack. She actually went on cleaning rooms instead of reporting the episode right away, prosecutors told the defense in a letter.

She also told prosecutors a tearful, vivid but untrue story of having been gang-raped in her native Guinea, later admitting it was among various false accounts of oppression that she had been told to memorize to enhance her 2004 application for political asylum, prosecutors said. And she claimed someone else’s child as her own dependent and lied about her income on tax forms, they said.

District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. portrayed the turnabout as a case of prosecutors doing the right thing.

“Our commitment to the truth and the facts will govern how we proceed” in the Strauss-Kahn case, he told reporters.

Authorities have not said specifically what they now think of the truthfulness of the woman’s allegations against Strauss-Kahn. Investigators found traces of his semen on her uniform, and that is powerful evidence there was a sexual encounter of some kind, although the defense has said anything that happened was not forced.

Still, the apparent lies about her background and her behavior could seriously damage her credibility as a witness if the case goes to trial. Another hearing is set for July 18.

Moments after the hearing, the accuser’s attorney, Kenneth Thompson, fired back.

“It is clear that this woman made some mistakes, but that doesn’t mean she’s not a rape victim,” the lawyer said.

The 32-year-old hotel maid accused Strauss-Kahn of chasing her through his luxury suite in May, trying to pull down her pantyhose and forcing her to perform oral sex. Thompson said Strauss-Kahn bruised the woman’s genitals, tore a ligament in her shoulder and ripped her stockings.

“From day one, she has described a violent sexual assault that Dominique Strauss-Kahn committed against her,” he said. “She has described that sexual assault many times, to prosecutors and to me, and she has never once changed a single thing about that encounter.”

He blasted as lies media reports that the woman was involved with a drug dealer.

The New York Times reported that the woman was recorded on the phone with an incarcerated man soon after she made the allegations against Strauss-Kahn, discussing whether to press her case. The newspaper said the man had been arrested on marijuana possession charges and had deposited cash in the woman’s bank account.

 

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