Has Russell Leaked Survivor Secrets?

CBS and "Survivor" recently filed a lawsuit against JIM EARLY... a blogger who posts under the name "missyae" on the forum site SurvivorSucks.com.

Early was leaking all kinds of "Survivor" results, secrets and other information that wouldn't be known to anyone who wasn't involved with the show.

CBS offered to drop the lawsuit, but only if Early revealed his source.  He did... saying that it was "Survivor" villain RUSSELL HANTZ.

That made sense, because Early's biggest leaks came in the seasons Russell competed in... 19 and 20.

The lawsuit was dropped... and now CBS could go after Russell.  Leaking information about the show is not only in breach of a contestant's contract, it also reportedly comes with a $5 million penalty.

CBS has NOT said what they're going to do.  The problem is Russell is one of their more popular contestants... AND he's back on the upcoming season of "Survivor".  ("Survivor:  Redemption Island", which premieres February 16th.)

Russell has never commented on the lawsuit against Early, but last month, he did post this on his Facebook page:  Quote, "Please respect me as I respect my fans.  I will NOT talk about Season 22 so please don't ask until it's over.