Was Fusion GPS or its sleazy Venezuelan client, Derwick Associates, behind the thuggish break-in into the apartment of blogger Alek Boyd?  It's a question that should be asked, given the other activities coming to light in congressional testimony about this opposition research firm, run by two leftist former reporters from The Wall Street Journal named Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch.

Testimony has revealed that this pair, in addition to being behind the "golden showers" fake dossier on President Trump, were also paid by boliburguesa oligarchs made rich by their affiliation with the Venezuelan government known a Derwick Associates.  The latter have been accused in sworn testimony of absolutely filthy opposition research tactics that step over the line of both ethics and probably the law.  They tried to stop Human Rights Foundation president Thor Halvorssen (born in Venezuela but of Norwegian descent) from exposing Derwick, according to testimony this week, and then tried to falsely smear him as a pervert and criminal.  They also threatened Wall Street Journal reporter Jose de Cordoba and got him to stop reporting on the multi-billion-dollar thievery of Derwick.  The Federalist has some of the disgusting details about how shady their scheme really was.

Blogger Alek Boyd appears to have been the victim of clear political violence – it was a break-in at his London apartment on 17 November, with clear threats to his children.  That raises questions about Fusion's murky ties to MI6, which had an ex-agent cook up the phony Trump file on "golden showers."  Is MI6 compromised?  It sure looks like a pattern.

Fusion's ties to Chavista thugs is a helluva strange, sleazy, high-stakes case.  When I was at American Media Institute, my editor did not want to touch the story, knowing how tangled and sleazy it was going to be, a huge drain on resources.  I have written small items about this story as I have been following it, and a Google search will only turn up Berwick references, not Derwick ones, under a search of my name.  I am very suspicious of my inability to find any of my past pieces on this issue to link.

They were also the people behind the smearing of Sergio Magnitsky, the 37-year-old Moscow-based accountant serving as hedge fund manager William Browder's tax attorney who uncovered a $230-million tax-refund rip-off being looted by Russian agents from the Russian government, who refused to back down on the finding and was subsequently arrested, beaten, and murdered in a Russian prison.  His death was the basis for the sanctions on Russian thugs enacted through the Magnitsky Act.  Fusion was also behind the counter-smear attempts put on by Planned Parenthood after activists caught them red-handed on film trying to sell baby parts and was behind the digging in the trash cans of Mitt Romney 2012 campaign donor Frank VanderSloot of Idaho, and attempting to smear him.

With a record like this, why are these people still in business?  Are they seen as insurance to Congress, a means of smearing their own opponents, and therefore valuable where they are?  Halvorssen has pointed out that their work crosses the line into unregistered foreign agent activity as they seek to spike news stories and keep reporters from covering their sleazy clients.  With this kind of activity, some busts are in order.  This is the deepest part of the swamp we have seen decried by President Trump.  It's time to pull the plug on these beasts immediately.

Corrections: Alek Boyd did not report that MI6 had gotten London police to lay off investigating the break-in of his apartment; date of break-in corrected.