Christopher Steele broke FBI media rules after being ‘admonished,’ documents show

The FBI formally admonished ex-British spy Christopher Steele in early 2016 before he began investigating candidate Donald Trump, according to new documents.

Mr. Steele signed the admonishment and then on at least two occasions violated the rule for confidential human sources, or CHS, by talking to the news media.

News of the verbal admonishment is contained in 70 pages of mostly redacted FBI documents on what Mr. Steelereported as a CHS, how much he was paid and how he met his demise as a key bureau undercover source.

The documents were obtained by the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, which went to court to obtain them.

Totally redacted pay request forms show 11 payments in 2016, but don’t reveal his project. Mr. Steele, a Kremlin expert who runs Orbis Business Intelligence in London, had a previous FBI association and the payments could have been for other work.

If the money was for Trump-related spying or Russia intelligence, then Mr. Steele was collecting from two sources: the bureau and the Hillary Clinton campaign/Democratic Party. They hired Fusion GPS to run Mr. Steele as a source for Trump opposition research.