Special Counsel John Durham’s report identifies Irish-born public relations executive and Clinton ally Charles Dolan as the likely source of the infamous ‘golden showers’ rumor about Donald Trump in the Steele’s discredited dossier that ended up in the FBI Director’s very clumsy briefing on a potential ‘kompromat’. ‘ a few days before taking office.
Durham’s 300-page report contains new information about the possible source of the discredited salacious claim – and maps out in detail how the information may have come to light.
It says Dolan, a public relations expert with Kremlin contacts who advised Bill and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaigns, visited the Ritz Carlton in Moscow in 2016 and met with key staff there.
Dolan then emailed an acquaintance in Moscow saying, “I’m in Russia making plans to be adopted in case this crazy man [Trump] is elected.’
Durham’s four-year investigation concluded that the FBI never had credible grounds to investigate Trump’s ties to Russia before the election and found no collusion. Despite the lack of evidence, the allegations were taken to the media and picked up by Democrats and critics.
The damning report also says the FBI wanted to continue paying $300,000 to Russia’s top national source for the case Igor Danchenko – even after the bureau found his evidence not credible – in an apparent attempt to buy his silence.
Steele has also been offered up to $1 million for the now-discredited claims of what Durham describes as Trump’s “salacious sexual activity” and any connection to Vladimir Putin.
Charles Dolan is a public relations executive who was identified in the indictment of Igor Danchenko, who was acquitted after Dolan’s office filed charges. Durham Report says he was ‘likely’ source of salacious allegations about Donald Trump at Ritz in Moscow
The report identified Dolan as the “likely” source of information on the salacious allegations involving Trump. He says he met officials at the Ritz in Moscow during his own trip in 2016. Trump stayed at the hotel during the 2013 Miss Universe pageant – but not in the presidential suite, according to Durham
Presidential: Moscow Ritz hotel records reviewed by Durham staff reveal Trump did not stay in the presidential suite, which was referenced in the ‘dirty file’, during his 2013 trip
Mueller investigators interviewed hotel staff and interviewed witnesses in an effort to trace the rumor that became the infamous “golden showers” passage contained in the filing.
The room where it didn’t happen: The Presidential Suite offers stunning views of Moscow. But according to the $6.5 million Durham Report, Trump didn’t stick around in 2013, despite the “raw” information that was included in the Steele dossier.
The report continues to name Dolan as a ‘sub-source’ of information for Danchenko, a Russian expert who provided information that ended up in the Steele dossier – and lays out the information trail that led to the claim golden showers.
The report devotes about six pages to finding a possible origin for the shocking claim – and blows up at least one element of it: that Trump stayed in the same presidential suite while in town for the 2013 Miss Universe pageant. at the hotel where President Barack Obama stayed in 2009.
Detail is apparently the key to the story. According to the filing, “TRUMP’s (evil) conduct in Moscow included hiring the Presidential Suite of the Ritz Carlton, where he knew the President and Mrs. OBAMA (whom he hated) had stayed on one of their trips. officials in Russia”. He then recounted information according to “Source D” about prostitutes “defiling” the bed in the infamous “golden showers” episode.
However, Trump evidently stayed in a lesser room, although the Durham team would not identify the exact bedroom or suite.
The Durham team reviewed hotel records at the hotel, where the Kremlin is said to have a presence.
Durham investigators trace the material to Dolan, who made a June 2016 trip to Moscow in preparation for a conference in Moscow titled “Inside the Kremlin” on behalf of the Young President’s Organization.
At the time, Dolan was already establishing a working relationship with Igor Danchenko, who was acquitted of lying to the FBI charges in one of several Durham prosecutions that collapsed.
Durham investigators wrote a section titled: ‘Trump’s alleged salacious sexual activity at Ritz Carlton Moscow appears in Steele report
Former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele gathered information from sources and compiled it into what became known as the Steele dossier
Russian analyst Igor Danchenko was acquitted at trial in 2022 for lying to the FBI about his sources. The damning report says the FBI wanted to continue paying Danchenko $300,000, even though they knew he lied about the Steele case.
Danchenko has been identified as a “primary source” for the dossier.
Durham interviewed Dolan and Danchenko and tracked down email traffic where Danchenko “passed” information to former British intelligence officer Chris Steele, who compiled what became the Steele dossier on Trump.
In an April 2016 email, Dolan referred to “meetings with the Kremlin” as well as “intelligence guys.”
He had also cultivated a relationship with powerful and now sanctioned Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, according to the report.
He previously attended events at the Russian Embassy in Washington in preparation for the event and met former ambassador Sergei Kislyak, who would later pose for smiling photos with Trump inside the Oval Office at the start. of the Trump presidency.
Dolan and Danchenko had lunch in Moscow during the June 2016 trip – but it was not Danchenko who stayed at the infamous hotel, the report points out.
In addition to advising the Clintons, he worked with Ketchum Public Affairs and later with kgglobal.
The episode is described in a section on “Trump’s alleged salacious activity at the Ritz Carlton Moscow”.
A source identified by Durham as “US Person-1” toured the hotel and its presidential suite with Dolan.
At the time, a staff member told them Trump stayed in the suite but “didn’t mention” any salacious activity.
Dolan’s recollection was “inconsistent” and “hesitant” when interviewed by the Durham team. He said he had no “specific memory” of telling Danchenko about Trump and the presidential suite.
The Durham office even interviewed the German citizen who was then the hotel’s general manager – which appears to be consistent with finding records of a “senior (Western)” member of hotel staff.
The hotel manager denied hearing any allegations about Trump. “In addition, the Bureau obtained documents from the Ritz Carlton Moscow which reveal that Trump was a guest of the hotel in 2013, but did not stay in the Presidential Suite then or at any other time.”
Durham notes that Dolan returned to Washington, D.C. on June 15, 2016, and that a few days later, on June 20, Steele described in his report an allegation describing ‘salacious sexual activity in which Trump allegedly participated while he was guest at the Ritz Carlton Moscow.
The report also states that Danchenko visited but did not stay at the Ritz in 2016, but spoke with hotel staff who “did not deny” the validity of the allegations.
He connects the dots, saying based on the analysis that Dolan was “the only person who met both Danchenko and the general manager of the Ritz Carlton (and other managers) during the June PLanning Trip was Dolan.” .
Even after years of research and extensive review, the Durham team makes no definitive statement.
“Our investigation … revealed that it was Dolan, not Danchenko, who had in fact interacted with the hotel staff identified in the Steele reports, so between the two Dolan appears the most likely source of the allegations,” he concludes.
During Danchenko’s 2022 trial, Dolan said he lied when passing information to the Russian expert about the firing of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort following revelations about Trump’s lobbying. Manafort and his ties to a Kremlin-backed political party.
He said he would “dig in” and was referring to a GOP friend, but admitted in testimony that he provided information from public reports and decided to “embellish it.”
