The request came in a Thursday letter addressed to outgoing Secretary of State John Kerry and signed by 18 Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. | Getty House Democrats urge resistance to 'political witch hunts'

A group of House Democrats is urging the State Department to resist any effort by President-elect Donald Trump's administration to single out its employees for working on certain subject areas, saying the possibility of such "political witch hunts" is reminiscent of "dark chapters in our history."

The request came in Thursday letter addressed to outgoing Secretary of State John Kerry and signed by 18 Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. It follows attempts by Trump transition aides to obtain names of Department of Energy employees involved in climate change policy. The Energy Department says it will not hand over any names.


An official at State said Thursday that the department was unaware of any similar requests for names by the transition staffers there. "In any event, we would not provide the names of such individuals," the official said.

A spokesman for the Trump team, Sean Spicer, told reporters on Wednesday that the request for names at the Energy Department "was not authorized or part of our standard protocol," and that "the person who sent it has been properly counseled." Trump aides did not immediately offer a comment regarding the House Democrats' letter.

The Congress members told Kerry that the Democrats' foreign affairs committee website would soon include a link allowing employees at State and the U.S. Agency for International Development to report abuses of authority, including potential cases of discrimination.

"Individual civil servants, Foreign Service officers, and other staff should not be singled out for their work in support of policy objectives that clash with the next administration’s goals, leaving them vulnerable to retribution by the incoming administration," the Democrats wrote. "In our view, gathering names in this manner bears striking resemblance to dark chapters in our history marked by enemies lists and political witch hunts.”

The State Department handles a wide range of matters that could put it directly at odds with Trump's priorities. For instance, it oversees the ongoing adherence to the Iran nuclear deal, which Trump has vowed to renegotiate. Under President Barack Obama, State also has had a role in advocating for international agreements on climate change.

The signatories to the letter included the ranking Democrat on the committee, Eliot Engel and every other member of the minority party. Initially, Hawaii's Tulsi Gabbard, who has at times bucked her fellow Democrats on foreign policy issues and has met with Trump, was not among the signatories. But a House aide said Gabbard had been moving offices and was not aware of the letter. By Friday she had added her signature and the letter was resent to the State Department.