Although the heavily redacted documents offer next to zero details about the FBI's work with Steele, it did indicated that the ex-MI-6 agent who helped compile the Trump-Russia dossier was instructed to stop collecting intelligence on behalf of the FBI in November 2016.
"CHS was used as a source for an online article. In the article, CHS revealed CHS' relationship with the FBI as well as information that CHS obtained and provided to FBI," the second page of the release states. "On November 1, 2016, CHS confirmed all of this to the handling agent. At that time, handling agent advised CHS that the nature of the relationship between the FBI and CHS would change completely and that it was unlikely that the FBI would continue a relationship with the CHS."
"Additionally, handling agent advised that CHS was not to operate to obtain any intelligence whatsoever on behalf of the FBI," it added.
The documents also include several pages of payment requests and receipts.
Steele was hired by research firm Fusion GPS during the 2016 presidential campaign to collect data on alleged ties between Russia and Trump and his campaign team. The 54-year-old's findings were later used to compile the infamous Steele dossier, the existence of which was known but ignored by much of the US media because its claims could not be verified. It was eventually published by BuzzFeed in 2017.
Following its move to publish the dossier, BuzzFeed and editor Ben Smith were sued by Russian entrepreneur Aleksej Gubarev for libel over a BuzzFeed article citing the dossier that claimed that he had sent pornography and spyware to computers belonging to the Democratic Party.
Friday's FBI release comes after the US Department of Justice released another set of heavily redacted documents late last month in which it detailed — or rather, didn't — its surveillance of Trump presidential campaign adviser Carter Page.