PETALUMA,Calif., Aug. 13, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The SmallBusiness Administration (SBA) is refusing to respond to a Freedom ofInformation Act request for the emails of Press Office Director Terry Sutherland.

On April 9, 2014 the American Small Business League (ASBL) submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the SBA forall of all of Terry Sutherland's emails for the month of March 2014.

On April 10, the ASBL received a conference call from SBAAssistant Administrator Fred Baldassaro, TerrySutherland and another unnamed SBA staffer.  Duringtheir conference call they claimed Terry Sutherlandhad "thousands of emails."  They attempted to dissuade the ASBLfrom requesting all of Sutherland's emails because of the significant volume ofemails he sent and received during the month of March.

Toexpedite and simplify their FOIA request the ASBL agreed to modify their FOIArequest to only include Sutherland's outgoing emails as opposed to the"thousands" they claimed would be applicable to the original FOIArequest.

Afterthirteen weeks the SBA finally provided the ASBL with just 73 of Terry Sutherland's emails. On July 15, 2014 the ASBL appealed the SBA's response to their FOIA request. The SBA responded on July 30 and acknowledged the 73 emailsthey provided did not actually constitute all of Sutherland's outgoing emails,but just his external emails.  The SBA has now agreed to provide all ofSutherland's internal and external outgoing emails for the month of March 2014.

TheASBL requested TerrySutherland's emails because they believed his emails would uncover a clearpattern by the SBA Press Office to block media coverage of the diversionof federal small business contracts to large businesses and a coordinatedcampaign to attack the ASBL, impugn their credibility and attack the reputationof ASBLPresident Lloyd Chapman.

Chapmanstated, "The SBA is putting up so much resistance to releasing all of Terry Sutherland's emails because they wouldprove he and his staff have engaged in a systematic campaign to block mediacoverage of the rampant fraud and abuse at the Pentagon and the SBA that hasbeen uncovered by the SBA Inspector General, the GAO and the media."

NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, Fox and RTTV haveall reported on the fraud and abuses in SBA managed programs.

AnSBA press release stated, "Terry Sutherland reported as the Director, Press Office,U.S. Small Business Administration, Washington, D.C. in April 2013…  Priorto this assignment he served from 2009-2013 as the Director, CorporateCommunications, for the Pentagon Force Protection Agency (PFPA)…"

TheASBL believes Sutherland's emails may show he is still closely associated withthe Pentagon'sefforts to try and obscure abuses in Pentagon small business subcontractingprograms such as the Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program.

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