Special Counsel John Durham’s report identifies Irish-born PR executive and Clinton ally Charles Dolan as the likely source of the infamous “golden showers” rumor about Donald Trump in the discredited Steele dossier and ended up in the very inconvenient briefing from FBI director about possible compromise. days before he took office.
Durham’s 300-page report provides new information about the possible source of the discredited lewd allegation — and compiles a detailed map of how the information came to light.
It says Dolan, a public relations expert with Kremlin contacts who advised the presidential campaigns of Bill and Hillary Clinton, toured the Ritz Carlton in Moscow in 2016 and met key staffers.
Dolan then emailed an acquaintance in Moscow and said, “I’m in Russia making plans to get adopted in case this crazy man [Trump] is chosen.’
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 passed to the media and pounced on by Democrats and critics.
The damning report also says that the FBI wanted to continue paying Russia’s national and primary source of the file Igor Danchenko $300,000 — even after they found his evidence not credible — in an apparent attempt to buy his silence.
Steele was also offered up to $1 million for the now-discredited claims of what Durham describes as “lustful sexual activity” by Trump and any links to Vladimir Putin.
Charles Dolan is a public relations executive who was identified in the indictment against Igor Danchenko, who was acquitted after Dolan’s office filed suit. Durham report says he was the ‘probable’ source of lewd allegations about Donald Trump at the Moscow Ritz
The report identified Dolan as the “likely” source of information about lewd allegations involving Trump. It says he met officials at the Moscow Ritz during his own trip there in 2016. Trump stayed at the hotel during the 2013 Miss Universe pageant — but not in the presidential suite, according to Durham
The report further points to Dolan as a “sub-source” of information for a Russia expert who provided information that made its way into the Steele Dossier – and explains the trail of information that led to the golden showers claim.
The report devotes about six pages to tracing a possible origin of 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 in the United States. hotel where President Barack Obama had stayed in 2009.
The detail seems to be the key to the story. According to the file, “TRUMP’s (perverted) behavior in Moscow included renting the presidential suite of the Ritz Carlton, where he knew that President and Mrs. OBAMA (whom he hated) had stayed during one of their official trips to Russia.” It went on to tell information according to ‘Source D’ about prostitutes ‘staining’ the bed in the infamous ‘golden showers’ episode.
However, Trump apparently stayed in a smaller room, though Durham’s team does not identify the exact room or suite.
Durham’s team examined hotel records at the hotel, where the Kremlin is believed to be present.
The Durham researchers trace the material to Dolan, who made a June 2016 trip to Moscow in preparation for a conference in Moscow called “Inside the Kremlin” on behalf of the Young President’s Organization.
At the time, Dolan was already developing a working relationship with Igor Danchenko, who was acquitted of charges of lying to the FBI as one of several Durham prosecutions that fell apart.
The Durham researchers drafted a section titled, “Trump’s Alleged Lustful Sexual Activity at the Ritz Carlton Moscow Appears in a Steele Report
Former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele gathered information from sources and compiled it into what became the Steele Dossier
Russian analyst Igor Danchenko was acquitted at his trial in 2022 on charges of lying to the FBI about his sources. The damning report says the FBI wanted to keep paying Danchenko $300,000 even though they knew he lied about the Steele file
Danchenko has been identified as a ‘primary source’ for the dossier.
Durham interviewed Dolan and Danchenko and tracked down emails in which Danchenko “forwarded” information to former British intelligence officer Chris Steele, who compiled what became known as the Steele Dossier on Trump.
In an April 2016 email, Dolan referred to “meetings with the Kremlin” and to meetings with “intelligence people.”
According to the report, he had also developed a relationship with the powerful and now sanctioned Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
He had previously attended events at the Russian embassy in Washington in preparation for the event, and met former ambassador Sergei Kislyak, who would later pose grinning in photos with Trump in the Oval Office during Trump’s presidency.
Dolan and Danchenko had lunch in Moscow during the June 2016 trip — but it’s not Danchenko who stayed at the infamous hotel, the report points out.
In addition to advising the Clintons, he worked for Ketchum public affairs and later kglobal.
The episode is described in a section on “Trump’s alleged lewd activity at the Ritz Carlton Moscow.”
An intelligence source identified by Durham as “U.S. Person-1” took Dolan on a tour of the hotel and presidential suite.
At the time, an aide told them that Trump had remained in the suite but “made no report” of any lewd activity.
Dolan’s own recollection was “inconsistent” and “doubting” during an interview with Durham’s team. He said he had no “specific recollection” of telling Danchenko about Trump and the presidential suite.
The Durham office even interviewed the German citizen who was then the hotel’s GM – which seems to be equivalent to looking into files on a ‘senior (Western)’ member of the hotel staff.
The hotel official denied hearing allegations about Trump. “Furthermore, the agency has obtained records from the Ritz Carlton Moscow showing that Trump was a guest at the hotel in 2013, but was not 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 just days later, on June 20, Steele described in his report an allegation in which he “described lascivious sexual activities in which Trump allegedly participated while a guest was at the Ritz Carlton’. Moscow.
The report also says Danchenko visited the Ritz in 2016, but did not stay there, speaking himself to hotel staff who “did not deny” the validity of the allegations.
It connects the dots and, based on the analysis, says that Dolan “was the only person both Danchenko and the Ritz Carlton general manager (and other executives) met during the PLanning Trip in June was Dolan.”
Even after years of watching and lengthy research, Durham’s team isn’t making a definitive statement.
“Our investigation … revealed that it was Dolan, not Danchenko, who actually interacted with the hotel staff identified in the Steele reports, so between the two, Dolan appears to be the most likely source of the allegations,” it concludes.
At Danchenko’s 2022 trial, Dolan testified that he lied when he passed on information to the Russia expert about the firing of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort following revelations about Manafort’s lobbying and ties to a Kremlin-backed political party.
He said he would “snoop around” and referred to a GOP friend, but admitted during his testimony that he provided information from public reports and decided to “sweeten” it.