ATI fights SBA’s bid to argue its case in secret

The Small Business Administration has asked a federal judge to accept a filing that ATI Government Solutions would not be allowed to see, to which the company says SBA is trying to defend its suspension of the company in secret.

Attorneys representing the government filed a sealed motion on Sunday, asking to submit a document under seal. The motion was filed ex parte, which means ATI’s lawyers cannot see it either. Judge Ana Reyes of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia has not yet ruled on it yet.

ATI has been suspended from federal contracting since October 2025, when SBA acted a day after James O’Keefe released a video that the company says was heavily-edited.

SBA lifted the 8(a) suspension in June, but extended the Federal Acquisition Regulation-based suspension in October.

ATI is now asking Reyes for an emergency order to lift the FAR ban. Reyes has given SBA until Nov. 6 to respond.

In an opposition document filed Tuesday, ATI calls the sealed motion yet another attempt by SBA to avoid explaining why it suspended the company.

“For more than a year, defendants [SBA] have been unable to do so, utterly failing to provide any evidence or explanation to justify their decisions, all the while publicly naming and shaming Plaintiff ATI as the paradigm of a fraudulent government contractor,” ATI writes.

Now that ATI has gone to court to force SBA to explain itself, the company claims the agency is still trying to shield its actions from scrutiny.

ATI claims that the Justice Department, which represents SBA in the case, has refused to Iet the company see any version of the motion or to explain why it was filed ex parte.

No redacted version appears on the public docket. ATI argues the judge’s standing order requires one.

Courts allow ex parte filings only in narrow circumstances and especially involving national security cases, ATI argues.

“This is not a case that involves national security or state secrets; it is a case about a government IT contractor suspended without cause,” the company writes.

ATI says it believes the sealed filing relates to a Justice Department investigation that SBA prompted. SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler has said publicly that the agency was referring ATI to law enforcement.

ATI is arguing that because SBA already made the investigation public, the agency cannot now claim the investigation is too sensitive to discuss.

The company also warns that letting SBA rely on the investigation would create a loophole. ATI says an agency could prompt an investigation, punish a company, then cite that same investigation as the reason it cannot explain itself.

That would let the government use the investigative process “as both a sword and a shield,” ATI writes.

Any investigation can’t justify the suspension after the fact anyway, the company argues. SBA suspended ATI within hours of the O’Keefe video.

ATI’s earlier filings indicate the administrative record SBA has turned over consists of links to O’Keefe’s videos with wo of them posted after the suspension, as well as publicl-available business records.

ATI wants Reyes to deny the motion. If she does not, ATI wants SBA ordered to share enough information for the company to respond. As a last resort, it wants a sealed hearing where both sides are present.

“Plaintiffs cannot properly respond to a motion they have not read and to which they have no access,” the company writes.

ATI closes its filing by quoting Justice Louis Brandeis: “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants."

Officials at SBA have declined to comment.