Speculation is growing that after more than a year and a half, John Durham's probe into the origins of the "Trump-Russia collusion" hoax is not just bearing fruit but is about to shed light on just who ordered the operation to begin with.

Last fall, Durham, a former U.S. attorney who was named a special prosecutor by then-Attorney General William Barr near the end of Donald Trump's presidency, indicted Michael Sussmann, a former Clinton campaign lawyer who has been charged with lying to a federal agent by falsely claiming there was a nefarious Internet link between Trump Tower and Russia's Alfa Bank, which has ties to the Kremlin.

In a filing earlier this month, Durham noted that a tech exec believed to be Rodney L. Joffe worked with and through Sussmann, a U.S. investigative firm hired by "Law Firm 1" (believed to be Perkins Coie) on behalf of Clinton's campaign, several cyber researchers and staffers at multiple internet companies to "assemble the purported data and white papers."

"In connection with these efforts, Tech Executive-1 exploited his access to non-public and/or proprietary Internet data," the filing stated. "Tech Executive-1 also enlisted the assistance of researchers at a U.S.-based university who were receiving and analyzing large amounts of Internet data in connection with a pending federal government cybersecurity research contract."