Nearly four months later, a beaming Dominque Strauss-Kahn finally got to take that JFK-to-Paris flight today, returning home with wife Anne Sinclair to the couple's Paris mansion. Scattered applauding supporters and a phalanx of reporters greeted the couple, reports the New York Daily News. "Finally, they are freed from this humiliating and unjust situation," says a neighbor and former culture minister. "They proved to have an amazing strength."
Strauss-Kahn's next steps aren't clear; he's said to be organizing an attempt to rehab his image, possibly to challenge Nicolas Sarkozy for the French presidency—a job he was widely favored for until his sexual assault scandal broke. But even though he's been vindicated in America, Strauss-Kahn faces trouble—in the form of an attempted-rape complaint from French writer Tristane Banon and a lawsuit from New York maid Nafissatou Diallo—and skepticism at home. "He owes the French an explanation and the French are waiting on that," says an adviser. (More Dominique Strauss Kahn stories.)