Following the Department of Defense's decision to award the $10bn Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract to Microsoft, Amazon has filed a complaint accusing US President Donald Trump of interfering with the deal.
The e-commerce giant filed a complaint in the US Court of Federal Claims in which it argued that President Trump launched “repeated public and behind-the-scenes attacks to steer” the lucrative Pentagon cloud contract away from AWS.
While the complaint has been heavily redacted, it makes the case that President Trump aimed to harm Amazon's founder and CEO Jeff Bezos who also owns the Washington Post. The US President has been a vocal opponent of Bezos and has repeatedly blasted the news outlet for spreading fake news.
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According to Amazon, Trump's interference made it impossible for the Pentagon to judge a winner “reasonably, consistently, and in a fair and equal manner”.
JEDI contract
In its complaint, Amazon called for a reevaluation of the proposals submitted to the Pentagon and the company wants the Department of Defense to come to a new award decision. Amazon also questioned how President Trump's bias affected the DoD's decision, saying:
“The question is whether the President of the United States should be allowed to use the budget of DoD to pursue his own personal and political ends.”
However, during a recent congressional testimony, top Pentagon technology official Dana Deasy denied that President Trump or the White House had any influence over the JEDI selection process.
With $10bn on the line over the course of ten years, Amazon's decision to appeal the contract makes perfect sense but finding out whether or not President Trump had anything to do with the DoD's decision will likely require a full investigation into the matter.
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Via Reuters
