Strauss-Kahn won't strike plea deal in sex crimes case - New York (CNN) -- French financier Dominique Strauss-Kahn will not accept any plea bargain and "won't plead guilty to anything" in the sex crimes case against him, one of his attorneys told CNN Thursday.
Attorney William Taylor made the remarks a day after Strauss-Kahn's legal team met with prosecutors in the case for nearly two hours. It's not known if any plea deal was offered. The meeting came about a week after Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., acknowledged that there are questions about the credibility of Strauss-Kahn's accuser.
The 62-year-old former chief of the International Monetary Fund is charged with sexual abuse and attempted rape of a hotel maid in May.
While Wednesday's meeting with prosecutors was "constructive," Strauss-Kahn's attorneys said, prosecutors maintained that they are not ready to drop the charges.
"The investigative process is continuing, and no decisions have been made," said Manhattan District Attorney spokeswoman Erin Duggan.
The accuser's civil attorney has called on Vance to recuse himself from prosecuting the case and appoint a special prosecutor.
"We make this request in order to protect the integrity of the prosecution of Mr. Strauss-Kahn, to ensure the victim's rights are not further prejudiced by deliberate acts seeking to undermine her credibility, to insulate your office from the appearance of conflict of interest, and to ensure that future victims of sex crimes, regardless of their backgrounds, are not dissuaded from coming forward," attorney Kenneth P. Thompson wrote in a 4-page letter to Vance.
But Duggan said Vance will not recuse himself. "Any suggestion that this office should be recused is wholly without merit," she said in a statement.
Thompson told CNN his client has admitted mistakes, but says that has nothing to do with what happened in Strauss-Kahn's hotel suite. "Despite everything," he told CNN Tuesday, "she wants to get on the witness stand. That's all she asks for."
Last week, Vance indicated that the 32-year-old accuser had been less than truthful with authorities about some aspects of her life and her whereabouts immediately after the alleged attack May 14 at the Sofitel hotel.
Thompson said Wednesday that Vance's office "apparently has been responsible" for leaks to the news media "that were intended to discredit the victim's character and, perhaps most importantly, undermine her charges against Mr. Strauss-Kahn."
He cited a telephone call he received June 30 from Chief Assistant District Attorney Daniel R. Alonso, informing him of the prosecutor's decision to turn over to the defense "certain false statements" that the victim had made to investigators.
During the call, he said Alonso told him about an audio recording obtained by the prosecution in which the alleged victim told a boyfriend jailed in Arizona a day after the alleged attack "about the possible benefits" of pursuing charges against Strauss-Kahn.
"When I asked Mr. Alonso specifically about what the victim had allegedly said during that conversation, he stated that the victim said 'words to the effect' that 'this guy has a lot of money. I know what I'm doing.'"
Thompson said that Alonso then agreed to turn over a copy of the recording or allow him and the alleged victim to listen to it but, more than six days later, had failed to do so. "I am told by Mr. Alonso that the victim must now wait for the prosecutor's interpreter to prepare a complete transcript of it," Thompson wrote.
He went on to complain that, within a few hours of that call, the New York Times reported on the "alleged conversation with the incarcerated individual," in an article that cited "'two well-placed law enforcement officials.'"
Thompson said he believes those officials work for Vance.
The alleged victim, meanwhile, has filed a libel lawsuit against the New York Post and five of its reporters after the newspaper reported that the woman was a prostitute, according to court filings.
The Post said it stands by its reporting.
A source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN that so far, "no evidence has been found that she is a prostitute."
The developments in New York come as Strauss-Kahn faces separate accusations of attempted rape in France, which were filed in a complaint by French writer Tristane Banon.
A Strauss-Kahn lawyer in France said he has filed a counter-claim against Banon for "false declarations."
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