PR exec who called Trump a 'mad man' was behind false 'golden showers' claims: Durham report reveals Donald never stayed in Moscow suite at center of salacious story - and how FBI wanted to keep paying Steele dossier source $300K AFTER he lied

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Special Counsel John Durham's report identifies Irish-born PR exec and Clinton ally Charles Dolan as the likely source of the infamous 'golden showers' rumor about Donald Trump in the discredited Steele dossier that ended up in the FBI director's very awkward briefing on potential 'kompromat' days before he took office. 

Durham's 300-page report contains new information about the possible source of the discredited salacious claim – and puts together a detailed map of 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, got a tour of the Ritz Carlton in Moscow in 2016 and met with key staff members there.

Dolan then emailed an acquaintance in Moscow saying: 'I'm in Russia making plans to be adopted in the event this mad man [Trump] gets elected.'

Durham's four-year investigation concluded that the FBI never had credible grounds to investigate Trump's links with Russia before the election and didn't find any collusion. Despite the lack of substantiation the allegations were fed to the media and jumped on by Democrats and critics.

The damning report also states that the FBI wanted to keep paying Russian national and primary source of the dossier Igor Danchenko $300,000 - even after the bureau found his evidence not credible - in an apparent bid to buy his silence.

Steele was also offered up to $1million for the now discredited claims about what Durham describes as 'salacious sexual activity' by Trump and any links to Vladimir Putin. 

Charles Dolan is a PR exec who was identified in the indictment of Igor Danchenko, who was acquitted after Dolan's office brought charges. The Durham report says he was the 'likely' source of salacious allegations about Donald Trump at the Moscow Ritz

The report identified Dolan as the 'likely' source of information about salacious allegations involving Trump. It says he met with officials at the Moscow Ritz during his own 2016 trip there. Trump stayed at the hotel during the 2013 Miss Universe pageant – but not in the Presidential Suite, according to Durham

Presidential: Hotel records from the Moscow Ritz reviewed by Durham's staff reveal that Trump did not stay in the Presidential suite, which was referenced in the 'dirty dossier,' during his 2013 trip

Mueller's investigators interviewed hotel staff and interrogated witnesses in an effort to trace the rumor that became the infamous 'golden showers' passage contained in the dossier

The room where it didn't happen: The presidential suite has stunning views of Moscow. But according to the $6.5 million Durham report, Trump didn't stay there in 2013, notwithstanding 'raw' information that made it into the Steele dossier

The report goes on to finger Dolan as a 'sub-source' of information for Danchenko, a Russia expert who provided information that found its way into the Steele Dossier – and lays out the information trail that led to the golden showers claim. 

The report devotes about six pages to tracking down 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 at the hotel where President Barack Obama had stayed in 2009.

The detail is seemingly key to the story. According to the dossier, 'TRUMP"s (perverted) conduct in Moscow included hiring the presidential suite of the Ritz Carlton, where he knew President and Mrs OBAMA (whom he hated) had stayed on one of their official trips to Russia.' It went on to recount 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 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 have a presence.

Durham's investigators trace the material to Dolan, who took a June 2016 trip to Moscow in preparation for a conference in Moscow called the '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 charges of lying to the FBI as one of several Durham prosecutions that fell apart.

Durham's investigators drafted a section titled: 'Trump's alleged salacious sexual activity at the Ritz Carlton Moscow appears in a Steele Report

Former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele gathered information from sources and compiled them into what became the Steele Dossier

Russian analyst Igor Danchenko was acquitted during his 2022 trial on charges of lying to the FBI about his sources. The damning report states that the FBI wanted to keep paying Danchenko $300,000, even though they knew he lied about the Steele Dossier

Danchenko has been identified as a 'primary source' for the dossier. 

 Durham interviewed Dolan and Danchenko, and tracked down email traffic where 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 referenced 'meetings with the Kremlin' as well as meeting 'intelligence guys.'

He also had cultivated a relationship with the powerful and now sanctioned Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov, according to the report. 

He had earlier attended events at the Russian embassy in Washington in preparation for the event, and met former Ambassador Sergei Kislyak, who would later pose for photographs grinning photographs with Trump inside the Oval Office early in the Trump presidency.

Dolan and Danchenko lunched in Moscow during the June 2016 trip – but it isn't Danchenko who stayed at the infamous hotel, the report underlines.

In addition to advising the Clintons, he worked with Ketchum public affairs and later  kglobal. 

The episode is described in a section on 'Trump's alleged salacious activity at the Ritz Carlton Moscow.'

A source of information identified by Durham as 'U.S. Person-1' took a tour of the the hotel and its Presidential Suite along with Dolan.

At the time, a staff member told them that Trump had stayed in the suite but 'did not mention' any salacious activity.

Dolan's own recollection was 'inconsistent' and 'vacillated' during an interview with Durham's team. He said he had no 'specific recollection' about telling Danchenko about Trump and the Presidential Suite.

Durham's office even interviewed the German citizen who was then the GM of the hotel – which appears to line up with dossier sourcing of a 'senior (western)' member of the hotel staff.

The hotel official denied hearing allegations about Trump. 'Further, the Office obtained records from the Ritz Carlton Moscow that reveal that Trump was a guest at 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 just days later, on June 20, Steele described in his report an allegation describing 'salacious sexual activity that Trump allegedly had participated in while a guest at the Ritz Carlton Moscow. 

The report also says Danchenko visited but did not stay in the Ritz in 2016, but spoke himself to hotel staff who 'did not deny' the validity of the allegations. 

It connects the dots, saying based on the analysis Dolan was 'the only person who met with both Danchenko and the Ritz Carlton general manager (and other managers) during the June PLanning Trip was Dolan.' 

Even after the years-long look and lengthy examination, 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 the more likely source of the allegations,' it concludes. 

During Danchenko's 2022 trial, Dolan testified that he lied when passing on information to the Russia expert about the firing of former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort following disclosures about Manafort's lobbying and links to a Kremlin-backed political party.

He said he would 'dig around' and referenced a GOP friend, but admitted during testimony that he provided information from public reports and decided to 'embellish' it.