Strauss-Kahn, 62, still faces charges that he sexually assaulted the woman in New York but questions about her credibility appear to be shifting the case in his favor in a twist that could upend French politics.

He smiled as he left the courtroom with his wife, Anne Sinclair, at his side.

Until his May 14 arrest, Strauss-Kahn had been a steward of the global economy and a leading contender in the 2012 French presidential elections. Jubilant supporters in the French Socialist party hoped he might rejoin the presidential race but some analysts saw him as too tarnished.

Amid the scandal, he was forced to resign as head of the International Monetary Fund on May 19. Christine Lagarde, who just stepped down as French finance minister, takes over the top IMF job.

Enjoying his first taste of freedom since being pulled off a Paris-bound jetliner hours after the purported attack, Strauss-Kahn emerged from the townhouse where he had been under house arrest on Friday evening and was driven with his wife and another couple to Scalinatella, a pricey Italian restaurant on Manhattan's Upper East Side.