U.S. SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION WASHINGTON, DC 20416 OFFICE OF GENERAL COUNSEL April 8, 2020 Melanie Sloan American Oversight 1030 15th St. NW Suite B255 Washington, DC 20005 foia@americanoversight.org Dear Ms. Sloan, This letter is in response to your Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) request No. SBA-2020000421 in which you requested email communications sent to general email domains and communications between SBA and White House Liaisons or Advisors. Specifically, you requested: (1) All email communications sent by (1) anyone serving in the capacity of White House Liaison or White House Advisor (including anyone serving as their Chiefs of Staff or Deputies) to (2) anyone with an email address ending in .com / .net / .org / .edu / .mail / .us. (2) All records reflecting communications, telephone call logs, calendar invitations, calendar entries, meeting notices, meeting agendas, informational material, talking points, any handwritten or electronic notes taken during any oral communications, summaries of any oral communications, or other materials) of (1) anyone serving in the capacity of White House Liaison or White House Advisor (including anyone serving as their Chiefs of Staff or Deputies) with or about (2) any of the below specified external entities or individuals: a. Virginia “Ginni” Thomas or any person communicating on her behalf, such as Crystal Clayton b. Barbara Ledeen or any person communicating on her behalf c. Becky Norton Dunlop or any person communicating on her behalf (3) All records reflecting communications (including emails, email attachments, ext messages, messages on messaging platforms, telephone call logs, calendar invitations, calendar entries, meeting notices, meeting agendas, informational material, talking points, any handwritten or electronic notes taken during any oral communications, summaries of any oral communications, or other materials) between (1) any political appointees* in the immediate front Office of the Secretary (or the senior-most official at your agency) as well as anyone serving in the capacity of White House Liaison or White House Advisor (including anyone serving as their Chiefs of Staff or Deputies) and (2) John McEntee, head of the Presidential Personnel Office at the White House, or anyone communicating on his behalf. (4) All records reflecting the content of a meeting between (1) anyone serving in the capacity of White House Liaison or White House Advisor (including anyone serving as their PVERSIGHT Chiefs of Staff or Deputies) and (2) John McEntee, head of the Presidential Personnel Office at the White House, on or about February 20, 2020,3 including any calendar entries, emails and other written communications about the meeting, agendas, lists of meeting attendees, minutes, summaries, handwritten notes, talking points, transcripts, or materials displayed or exchanged during the meeting. You subsequently narrowed your request in item number 1 to the following individuals, domains or email addresses: 1. Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch, or anyone communicating with an email address ending in @judicialwatch.org 2. Frank Gaffney, the Center for Security Policy, or anyone communicating with an email address ending in @centerforsecuritypolicy.org or @securefreedom.org 3. Tony Perkins, Ken Blackwell, Jerry Boykin, the Family Research Council, or anyone communicating with an email address ending in @frc.org 4. Gayle Trotter, the Independent Women’s Forum, or anyone communicating with an email address ending in @iwf.org 5. Catherine Englebrecht, Anita MonCrief, or anyone communicating with an email address ending in @truethevote.org 6. Sue Myrick 7. Diana Banister or anyone communicating with an email address ending in @sbpublicaffairs.com 8. Max Pappas 9. Anyone communicating from an email address ending in @cruz.senate.gov 10. Stephen Bannon 11. Dan Bongino 12. Leonard Leo, or anyone communicating with an email address ending in @fedsoc.org 13. Sandy Rios, the American Family Association, American Family Radio, or any person communicating with an email address ending in @afa.org or @afr.org 14. Lori Roman, Libertas Global Partners, or any person communicating with an email address ending in @libertasglobal.com 15. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), or any person communicating with an email address ending in @alec.org 16. Austin Ruse, the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam), or any person communicating with an email address ending in @c-fam.org 17. Matthew Boyle or any person communicating with an email address ending in @breitbart.com 18. Michael James Barton 19. Mark Tapscott, the Daily Caller News Foundation, or any person communicating with an email address ending in @dcnf.org 20. James O’Keefe, Project Veritas, or any person communicating with an email address ending in @projectveritas.com 21. Cleta Mitchell, including, but not limited to, communications with the email address cmitchell@foley.com 22. American D-Day 23. Heritage Foundation, Heritage Action, or any person communicating with an email address ending in @heritage.org or @heritageaction.com 24. FreedomWorks, or any person communicating with an email address ending in @freedomworks.org A\11 ~ 11(,J\ 25. Americans for Prosperity (AFP), or any person communicating with an email address ending in @americansforprosperity.org PVERSIGHT 26. The National Rifle Association, Ackerman McQueen, or any person communicating with an email address ending in @nra.org, nra-ila.org, or am.com SBA has performed a search of its records and no documents exist that are responsive to parts 1 and 2 of your request. SBA is releasing the attached documents that are responsive to parts 3 and 4 of your request. Redactions have been made pursuant to FOIA Exemptions 6. FOIA Exemption 6 protects information about individuals in “personnel and medical files and similar files” when the disclosure of such information “would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” The redacted information consists of personal email addresses and cell phone numbers, and clearly falls under the protection of FOIA exemption 6. If you are dissatisfied with the Agency’s decision, you may file an administration appeal within 90 days of the date of this letter to: Office of Hearings and Appeals Attention: Delorice Ford, FOIA Office 409 3rd Avenue, SW – 8th Floor Washington, D.C. 20416 If you are unable to resolve your FOIA dispute through our FOIA Public Liaison in the Office of Hearings and Appeals, the Office of Government Information Services (“OGIS”), the Federal FOIA Ombudsman’s Office, offers mediation services to help resolve disputes between FOIA requesters and Federal agencies. The contact information for OGIS is: Office of Government Information Services National Archives and Records Administration 8601 Adelphi Road-OGIS College Park, MD 20740-6001 ogis@nara.gov ogis.archives.gov 202-741-5770 877-684-6448 Sincerely, /4c~c_ 1 _ David A. Fishman Senior Legal Counsel for FOIA and Privacy Act Office of General Counsel Small Business Administration A M • ,I( ,J\ \J pVERSIGHT From: To: Subject: Date: Attachments: Gray, Christopher S. John.D.McEntee .gov SBA - Resumes Friday, February 28, 2020 4:56:06 PM .pdf Bill Manger Resume .doc Hello John Great seeing you again at the PPO & Cabinet Affairs meetings. Administrator Carranza asked that I share these resumes with you per your discussion earlier this week.  If you have any questions please let me know. Chris Christopher S. Gray Senior Advisor White House Liaison Office of the Administrator O: (202) 205-6335 C: VERSIGHT MULTI-SBA-20-0319-A-000001 From: To: Subject: Date: Threadgill, Emily K. john.d.mcentee .gov Call with Administrator Carranza Wednesday, February 26, 2020 11:26:41 AM Hi John, I hope this email finds you well! Administrator Carranza would like to speak with you this afternoon. Are you available sometime after 4:30 pm? Please let me know when you have a moment. Thank you! Emily Emily Threadgill Director of Scheduling and External Affairs Small Business Administration VERSIGHT MULTI-SBA-20-0319-A-000002 From: To: Cc: Subject: Date: Threadgill, Emily K. McEntee, John D. II EOP/WHO Forss, Katelin T. EOP/WHO RE: Call with Administrator Carranza Wednesday, February 26, 2020 1:13:59 PM Thank you!   - From: McEntee, John D. II EOP/WHO Cc: Forss, Katelin T. EOP/WHO .gov> CAUTION - The sender of this message is external to the SBA network. Please use care when clicking on links and responding with sensitive information. Send suspicious email to spam@sba.gov. She can call me at 430pm.    From: Threadgill, Emily K. Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2020 1:12 PM To: McEntee, John D. II EOP/WHO Subject: Call with Administrator Carranza   Hi John, I hope this email finds you well! Administrator Carranza would like to speak with you this afternoon. Are you available sometime after 4:30 pm? Please let me know when you have a moment. Thank you! Emily   Emily Threadgill Director of Scheduling and External Affairs Small Business Administration   VERSIGHT MULTI-SBA-20-0319-A-000003 From: To: Cc: Subject: Date: McEntee, John D. II EOP/WHO Gray, Christopher S. Hayley, Jordan A. EOP/WHO (Intern); Smith, Jared L. EOP/WHO Re: SBA - Resumes Friday, February 28, 2020 5:48:03 PM CAUTION - The sender of this message is external to the SBA network. Please use care when clicking on links and responding with sensitive information. Send suspicious email to spam@sba.gov. Thanks Chris!  Sent from my iPhone On Feb 28, 2020, at 4:56 PM, Gray, Christopher S. wrote: Hello John   Great seeing you again at the PPO & Cabinet Affairs meetings. Administrator Carranza asked that I share these resumes with you per your discussion earlier this week.  If you have any questions please let me know.   Chris   Christopher S. Gray Senior Advisor White House Liaison Office of the Administrator O: (202) 205-6335 C:   > VERSIGHT MULTI-SBA-20-0319-A-000004