The State Department has insisted that under Secretary Mike Pompeo, “political retribution will not be tolerated.” | Al Drago/Getty Images Democrats skewer Pompeo over controversial promotion Two senior Democrats say Pompeo has done nothing to punish Brian Hook, a Trump administration appointee suspected of engaging in political retaliation against career staffers.

Two top House Democrats are slamming Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for giving a new position to Brian Hook, a Trump administration appointee suspected of engaging in political retaliation against career staffers at the State Department.

The lawmakers, Reps. Eliot Engel of New York and Elijah Cummings of Maryland are also demanding more information on what Pompeo has done, if anything, to punish Hook and others involved in the alleged retaliation.


Those others include Mari Stull, a wine-blogger-turned-appointee alleged to have, among other things, sifted through career staffers’ social media accounts for signs of disloyalty to President Donald Trump.

In a letter to Pompeo dated Wednesday, Engel, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Cummings, the Oversight Committee’s ranking Democrat, raise concerns about Hook’s appointment as the new special envoy for Iran policy. In that role, Hook will lead the Iran Action Group, a unit that will coordinate U.S. policy toward the Islamist-led country.

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Hook is a political appointee who previously led the secretary’s policy planning staff. Emails shared with lawmakers by a whistleblower showed that Hook was involved last year in discussions about sidelining Sahar Nowrouzzadeh, a career civil servant who specialized in Iran and was a member of the policy planning staff.

The emails also mentioned other career staffers with supposedly suspect loyalties, even though such government employees are sworn to be professionally non-partisan and implement the policies of whatever administration is in charge.

“In remarks introducing Mr. Hook in his new role, you asserted that he ‘has worked tirelessly to advance President Trump’s foreign policy priorities across multiple domains’,” Cummings and Engel wrote to Pompeo. “However, internal documents show that he engaged in gross acts of retaliation against career State Department employees.”

Nowrouzzadeh, who joined the U.S. government during the George W. Bush administration, had come under attack in conservative media outlets, which have painted her as a stooge of former President Barack Obama and pro-Iran forces.

In the emails among administration officials and outside conservatives demanding a “purge” of so-called “Obama holdovers,” Nowrouzzadeh was falsely described as having been born in Iran. Although she is of Iranian descent, Nowrouzzadeh was born in Connecticut.

Nowrouzzadeh appealed to Hook for protection amid the media attacks. But, against her wishes, he cut short her policy planning staff appointment by three months. The emails also showed that some State Department officials tried to mislead a POLITICO reporter who broke initial stories about Nowrouzzadeh’s situation.

Engel and Cummings pointed out that they’ve repeatedly asked Pompeo for details on what he’s done to punish Hook and others involved in targeting Nowrouzzadeh and her fellow career staffers, but that the secretary had yet to reply to their satisfaction.

“The State Department has refused any of the documents we requested and has declined to make available Mr. Hook or any of [the] other officials we requested for interviews,” the lawmakers wrote. The pair pressed the department to offer them an immediate briefing on the steps it has taken and provide the documents they have requested.

The State Department did not immediately offer comment Wednesday.

In the past, department spokespeople have noted that there are two investigations ongoing into the case of Nowrouzzadeh and other career staffers, including one by the department’s inspector general. They have argued that handing over material to the lawmakers could jeopardize those other probes, an argument the Democrats reject.

The department has also insisted that under Pompeo, “political retribution will not be tolerated.” The secretary has himself said in a congressional hearing that he did not believe political appointees who engaged in such retaliation against career staffers should stay employed at the State Department.

Engel and Cummings described Hook’s new role as a promotion, although it’s being seen by some U.S. diplomats as a demotion from Hook’s previous role leading the policy planning team. Still, his continued presence at the department has upset many career employees who have yet to see Pompeo take any visible steps to punish people allegedly involved in political retaliation.

Career employees also are incensed over the continued employment of Stull, who is still listed as a senior adviser in the State Department’s international organizations bureau, a division that deals with institutions such as the United Nations.

Stull is a former food and beverage lobbyist and wine blogger known as the “Vino Vixen.” Citing unnamed sources, Foreign Policy reported earlier this year that she had made lists and gathered information on career employees’ supposed loyalties, and that her actions were pushing senior officials to quit the bureau.

POLITICO has repeatedly asked whether Stull was reprimanded in any way, but the department has been cautious to avoid sharing details. “It is a personnel matter, which has been dealt with through appropriate channels,” a department spokesman said in July.

In their letter, Engel and Cummings requested that the State Department fulfill their demands for information by Sept. 4.