Tristane Banon is a French journalist and writer. She is the daughter of Anne Mansouret and Gabriel Banon. She is a regular contributor on youth affairs at the French news websiteAtlantico.
Biography
Tristane Banon was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Île-de-France, on 13 June 1979. She is the daughter of Anne Mansouret, Socialist vice-president of the general council of Eure, representing Évreux-Est, in Upper Normandy. and French-Moroccan businessman Gabriel Banon who served as industrial policy advisor to French President Georges Pompidou and as economic advisor to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. She is of Moroccan Jewish descent on her father's side and Iranian and Belgian from her mother's side. She is a god-daughter of Dominique Strauss-Kahn's second wife Brigitte Guillemette. Banon earned a diploma from the Ecole Supérieure de Journalisme de Paris, and initially worked in casual jobs as a journalist, as an anchorwoman on a television show about new information and communication technologies, and as a sport journalist. She was employed in the politics department, and later the cultural department, of the French weekly Paris-Match, then worked at the daily newspaperLe Figaro. Her first book, a long essay entitled Erreurs avouées… about the biggest mistakes in the lives of political figures, was published in November 2003 by Anne Carrière. A short novelNoir délire, inspired by the death of French actress Marie Trintignant, appeared the same year in the literary reviewBordel. Her first novel J’ai oublié de la tuer was published in September 2004 by éditions Anne Carrière. The novel, described by Banon as part-autobiographical, tells the story of a young girl's ruined childhood, neglected by her mother and forced to fend for herself against an alcoholic and abusive nanny. Her second novel Trapéziste appeared in 2006, followed by Daddy Frénésie in 2008.
On 5 February 2007, during a television chat-show, Banon alleged that Dominique Strauss-Kahn had attempted to rape her in 2002 during the course of an interview while she was researching Erreurs avouées: "It ended really badly. We ended up fighting. It finished really violently … I said the word 'rape' to scare him but it didn't seem to scare him much… " Strauss-Kahn's name was initially bleeped out when the television program was broadcast. The news website AgoraVox later repeated the allegations with his name included and Banon subsequently repeated them on a video recording. Banon's mother, Socialist Party politician Anne Mansouret, said in an interview that she had persuaded her daughter not to file charges at the time of the alleged rape attempt. On 16 May 2011, it was reported Banon planned to file a legal complaint against Strauss-Kahn. On 20 May, Banon's lawyer, David Koubbi, said that neither he nor Banon wanted to be used by the Americanjudicial system in the New York v. Strauss-Kahn case, later dismissed due to the unreliability in the statements of the main prosecution witness. On 4 July, following Strauss-Kahn's release from house-arrest on his own recognizance in the New York case, David Koubbi said that Banon would file a complaint against Strauss-Kahn the following day. Strauss-Kahn's lawyers responded by saying they would in turn file a complaint of false accusation against Banon. The allegations were referred to, but without naming Banon explicitly, in Christophe Dubois' and Christophe Deloire's best-selling 2006 book Sexus Politicus about the private lives and sexual mores of leading French political figures. They were also the subject of the concluding chapter of Michel Taubmann's authorised biography Le Roman vrai de Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Banon contested the version of events described in the biography when it appeared in May 2011. In July 2011, the Paris prosecutor's office opened a preliminary investigation into Banon's complaint. Strauss-Kahn's lawyers said he had instructed them to open a countercomplaint against Banon for slander. In September Banon stated that if there is no criminal prosecution, she would bring a civil case against Strauss-Kahn. According to a report in L'Express Strauss-Kahn admits to attempting to kiss Banon. On 29 September Banon confronted Strauss-Kahn at a Paris police station at the request of French prosecutors investigating the alleged assault. In October the French public prosecutors dropped the investigation. They stated that there was a lack of evidence regarding the allegation of attempted rape. Although there was evidence of the less serious charge of "sexual assault", that charge could not be prosecuted because of the statute of limitations. According to transcripts of the police interrogation released by Strauss-Kahn's lawyers, Strauss-Kahn stated that, as Banon was leaving the apartment, he attempted to embrace her and to kiss her on the mouth; she pushed him away forcefully, saying something like "What are you doing?" and left.
