Meanwhile in Europe, Strauss-Kahn's past conduct with other women was getting new scrutiny.
The IMF investigated him following a 2008 affair with an employee, the Hungarian-born economist Piroska Nagy. The institution eventually cleared him of wrongdoing, but a person close to Nagy said Tuesday that she had sent the organization a letter at the time warning about his behavior toward women.
The letter voiced "doubts about Dominique Strauss-Kahn's suitability for running an international institution," according to the person, who declined to be identified, citing the sensitivity of the matter.
The New York Times published an excerpt of the letter, along with an account that said Strauss-Kahn had aggressively pursued Nagy, sent her sexually explicit messages and once had her summoned from the bathroom to speak to him.
The scandal comes at a delicate time for the IMF, which is trying to shore up teetering economies in Europe.
The IMF is an immensely powerful agency that loans money to countries to stabilize the world economy. In exchange it often imposes strict austerity measures.
Strauss-Kahn seemed to anticipate that his problems with women could be a political liability ahead of France's presidential elections.
The French daily newspaper Liberation reported this week that at a meeting with Strauss-Kahn in April, he speculated that his presidential campaign might be subjected to low blows over "money, women and my Jewishness."
"Yes, I love women. ... So what?" the newspaper quoted him as saying.
Strauss-Kahn also theorized that his enemies might try to pay someone to accuse him of rape, according to the newspaper.
The Associated Press does not name victims of alleged sex crimes unless they agree to it. But in the days since the alleged attack in Manhattan, details are beginning to emerge about Strauss-Kahn's accuser.
The woman came to the United States under "very difficult circumstances" in 2004 from Guinea, one of the world's most destitute countries, said Shapiro, her lawyer.
Guinea's average annual income of $1,000 per person is lower than Haiti's and Rwanda's and about the same as Afghanistan's, according to the CIA World Factbook.
The woman's daughter, then 8, came with her. The girl's father is dead, and they have no other relatives in the United States, Shapiro said.
"They are very much alone in this world," he said.
The United States gave the pair political asylum, he said, though he was unsure of the reason.
The woman found work as a chambermaid in hotels, he said, eventually landing a job in 2008 at the French-owned Sofitel Hotel on 44th Street in Manhattan. The hotel said she was a satisfactory employee.
"I would characterize her as a woman of great integrity, dignity, no pretense, of simple and basic values, and with no agenda other than to live and support her daughter and see her daughter do well in this country," Shapiro said.
The woman and her daughter moved into an apartment building in the Bronx about 10 months ago, said Zulema Zuñiga, who lives on the same floor. The neighbors would occasionally meet in the elevator and say hello.
"She was very nice," Zuñiga said.
But this humble immigrant life was shattered, police say, on Saturday afternoon, when the woman entered Strauss-Kahn's suite at the Sofitel to clean the room.
Strauss-Kahn came out of the bathroom naked, chased her down a hallway and pulled her into a bedroom, the woman told police. Then he dragged her into a bathroom, forced her to perform oral sex on him and tried to remove her underwear, she said.
She broke free, fled the room and told hotel security, but Strauss-Kahn was gone by the time detectives arrived, authorities said. They arrested him soon afterward on an airliner that was just about to depart for Europe.
Brafman said he is confident his client will be exonerated once all the physical evidence is collected.
Shapiro, a personal injury attorney, said he was put in touch with the woman through a mutual acquaintance. He said he was advising her for free and would play no role in the criminal case, which is being handled by government prosecutors. He said they had not discussed the possibility of a civil lawsuit against Strauss-Kahn.
Media attention has made it impossible for his client to return to her house or to work, Shapiro said. This week television crews and photographers hung around the employee entrance of the Sofitel and loitered outside her apartment, hoping for a glimpse of her.
"The reporters are everywhere. They've been ringing my bell all day long," said Isidore Adams, a neighbor.
Shapiro said his client is now in a "safe place," but would not elaborate.
"Her life has now been turned upside down," Shapiro said. "She can't go home, she can't go back to work. She has no idea what her future will be, what she will be able to do to support herself and her daughter. This has been nothing short of a cataclysmic event in her life."
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