'Fiance' Vouches for Strauss-Kahn Accuser

The Daily Beast has tracked down the jailed man involved with the maid accusing Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault. Amara Tarawally, 35, refers to the maid as his “fiancé,” and denied the (fairly sketchy) report that she’s a prostitute. She’s “a good lady, very honest,” and a devout Muslim, he says. “I tell her, pray, pray, pray.” He explains the fateful “I know what I’m doing” call thusly: He’d been visited by NYPD police, and suggested she tell her lawyers, and she replied, “I know what I’m doing.”

That explanation doesn’t jibe with official reports that place the call one day after the alleged attack, before the NYPD knew Tarawally existed. The Beast also finds holes in Tarawally’s devout persona, tracking down another woman who says they were engaged—though he told her he had another wife in New York he was trying to divorce. She wrote letters to the jail attesting to his character—until he asked her for $17,000. “I feel like I have been used,” she said. (More Amara Tarawally stories.)