Efforts To Smear Benghazi Whistleblower Charged

Sometimes, the administration likes leaks

Attorney Victoria Toensing said Wednesday she will ask the State Department's inspector general to launch an investigation into claims that employees there leaked personal information on her whistle-blower client to members of the media as an intimidation tactic ahead of a recent hearing on the Benghazi attack.

Toensing's client, Gregory Hicks, testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on May 8. Hicks is the former deputy chief of mission who was in Benghazi, Libya, at the time of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack that killed four Americans.

Toensing said State Department officials have told reporters that U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, who died in the attack, could not reach Hicks on the telephone to tell him about the attack because Hicks didn't have his phone on him and was too busy relaxing and watching television. It's an accusation Hicks has strongly refuted.