John Durham's damning report on the Trump-Russia probe sheds some light on the possible origin of the notorious "pee tape" rumor, which became an obsession of anti-Trump partisans at the height of the "Russian collusion" hysteria. 

The mythical "pee tape" was said to depict Trump watching prostitutes soil a hotel bed that the Obamas had slept in. The likely source for the outlandish slander is Charles Dolan, a public relations professional and Democratic operative with close ties to the Clintons, Durham speculated.

Days before the pee tape myth first surfaced in the salacious, Clinton-funded Christopher Steele dossier, Dolan had met with Igor Danchenko, the dossier's primary sub-source, for lunch in Moscow.

While Danchenko said he heard the rumor from hotel staff at the Ritz Carlton Moscow, Durham's report identifies Dolan as the more likely source than Danchenko.

"Pee tape" source found

Danchenko did not stay at the Ritz Carlton hotel during the June visit, according to Durham, but Dolan toured the hotel, including its presidential suite, and met with its general manager, who was cited in the Steele dossier as having "confirmed" the rumor.

"Our investigation, however, 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," Durham's report said.

An American, who was with Dolan on the tour, told Durham's team that a hotel staffer mentioned Trump staying in the presidential suite, but the employee said nothing about sexual activity. Hotel records Durham obtained found Trump had stayed at the hotel, but not the suite.

Durham reasoned that Dolan is the source of the "pee tape" story because he is the only person who met with both Danchenko and the hotel manager.

When Durham's team interviewed the hotel manager, he denied ever hearing of the Trump rumor before it blew up in the press. He also did not recognize Danchenko in a photo.

An outlandish slander

When Durham's team interviewed Dolan, they found his recollection of the Ritz Carlton visit to be "inconsistent" and unreliable. He adamantly denied being the source of the rumor.

"Dolan stated, in sum, that it was possible that he (Dolan) told Danchenko about the Presidential Suite and Trump, but he had no specific
recollection of doing so."

Despite his relationship with Danchenko and being cited by Steele himself as a person with information about Trump's alleged Russia ties, Dolan was never interviewed by the FBI in its Trump-Russia probe.

It was one of many, many inexplicable oversights Durham identified in his damning report, which found the FBI routinely ignored information challenging the "collusion" narrative, including reports that Clinton was aiming to "stir up a scandal" tying Trump and Russia.

During Trump's presidency, millions of Democrats imagined -- and many likely still do -- that the "pee tape" was the so-called kompromat Putin was using to control Trump.