A key Benghazi whistle-blower who has allegedly been punished for speaking out against the administration is a registered Democrat who voted for both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
The lawyer of Gregory Hicks, the former U.S. deputy chief of mission in Libya who testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Wednesday, confirmed the information to The Daily Caller on Saturday.
According to the lawyer, Victoria Toensing, Hicks voted for Clinton during the 2008 primary, and for then-Illinois Sen. Obama in the 2008 general election. He again voted for Obama in 2012.
“The fact is he is a registered Democrat in Virginia. The fact is he voted for Hilary in the primary and Obama and then again for Obama,” Toensing said.
Toensing added that she did not know he was a Democrat until the day before the hearing.
“I’m not interested in that,” she said. “I’m interested in government not abusing its powers.”
Hicks testified before the House Oversight Committee this week regarding the events that took place on Sept. 11, 2012 in Benghazi and recalled how the State Department told him not to cooperate with the congressional investigation into the events, which led to the deaths of four Americans.
Hicks further testified that he has been demoted since Benghazi.
“The job now is a significant … it’s a demotion,” Hicks said before the committee. “Foreign-affairs officer is a designation that is given to our civil service colleagues who are desk officers. So I’ve been effectively demoted from deputy chief of mission to desk officer.”
The State Department has denied the demotion, saying that Hicks decided to end his assignment in Libya early.
“The Department has not and will not retaliate against Mr. Hicks,” Acting Deputy State Department spokesperson Patrick Ventrell said during a Thursday press briefing. “As he testified yesterday, he decided to shorten his assignment in Libya following the attacks, in part due to understandable family reasons, and that he has followed standard employment processes.”
According to Toensing, however, the administration is simply lying.
“The State Department is lying — saying he was not demoted. It is almost impossible under law for them to take away anybody’s salary. But they demoted him to a job where he has no meaningful work,” she said. “He had a choice between no job whatsoever and a job that didn’t have any meaningful work. And I say this is like telling a starving man he can have no food or he can have the rotten beef. And if he chooses the rotten beef, is that a choice?”