One could start an unsupported rumor without any proof or any source. All you have to do is look at the last two years of wasted speculation on Trump/Russia collusion to see that.
Eventually it catches up if there is no proof.
Using what they had, if they had gotten anything, would have required providing evidence.
Again, since they got nothing you have no idea what they would have done with the evidence if they had gotten it.
If they just went public with the evidence, you don’t thing someone would have asked how they knew or where they got it from?
Seriously?
You are basically trying to condemn them for something that never happened but that you imagine would have happened a certain way if it had happened.