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Article 2.
The Daily Beast
5 Lessons of the DSK Affair
Bernard-Henri Lévy

July 2, 2011 -- The Strauss-Kahn affair is not over.
For it to be over, the American system of justice must pursue its
investigation and work to the very end.
If it’s truly to be over, Dominique Strauss-Kahn must be granted not
only his freedom, but—even more importantly—restoration of his
honor.
In other words, “the Strauss-Kahn affair” will continue to be regarded
as such as long as it hasn’t been clearly established that there never
was any affair at all—and that the plaintiff, not content to have lied
about this or that aspect of her past, also lied in accusing the former
head of the IMF of having raped her.
And yet, given recent revelations, we can already draw a few lessons
from what will ultimately—no doubt very soon—be known as the
Strauss-Kahn non-affair.
1. The cannibalisation of Justice by the Sideshow.
This cannibalisation is not exclusively an American phenomenon, of
course, and we have witnessed myriad examples of it in Europe and
France. But it must be said that, with this affair, it has reached the
heights of obscenity. The improvised press conference by the
woman’s lawyer on the steps of a courthouse normally dedicated to
the sober discernment of the truth was obscene. The “shame on
you’s” that greeted Dominique Strauss-Kahn as he arrived for the
hearing on June 6th, shouted by battalions of hotel chambermaids
who knew nothing of the actual case and whose protest had been
orchestrated and scripted, were obscene. And so, too, though in
another manner, was the famous “perp walk” which, I’m aware, is the

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