Amazon wants to question Trump and cronies over JEDI contract
Did President Trump pressure the Pentagon not to award the JEDI contract to Amazon?
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Amazonis seeking to depose US President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, former Defense Secretary James Mattis and others over how the Pentagon’s $10bnJEDI cloud computing contractwas awarded to Microsoft.
In court documents which were recently unsealed and filed, the ecommerce giant’s cloud computing divisionAWSsaid that it is currently trying to depose seven “individuals who were instrumental” in the JEDI source selection that “played pivotal roles” inMicrosoftbeing awarded the contract.
In addition to Trump, Mattis and Esper, AWS is also seeking to depose Dana Deasy who is the chief information officer of the Defense Department, the source selection authority thatawarded the contract to Microsoftand the chairpersons of the SSA, according to the documents.
In a statement toCNBC, a spokesperson for AWS provided more details on the matter, saying:
“President Trump has repeatedly demonstrated his willingness to use his position as President and Commander in Chief to interfere with government functions – including federal procurements – to advance his personal agenda. The preservation of public confidence in the nation’s procurement process requires discovery and supplementation of the administrative record, particularly in light of President Trump’s order to ‘screw Amazon.’ The question is whether the President of the United States should be allowed to use the budget of the DoD to pursue his own personal and political ends.”
JEDI contract
The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud computing contract could end up being worth up to $10bn over a 10 year period. While Amazon was initially seen as the favorite to win the contract, the Pentagon ended up selecting Microsoft instead.
Back in November, Amazonfiled a noticein the US Court of Federal Claims indicating that it planned to protest the Pentagon’s decision to award Microsoft the contract, claiming the JEDI evaluation process had “clear deficiencies, errors and unmistakable bias”. In court documents made public in December, Amazon said that Trump launched “behind-the-scenes attacks” against it which led to it losing out on the contract.
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AWS is trying to depose Trump about his involvement in the bidding process, including any private conversations he had about it or instructions he gave regarding the award as well as any “efforts to harm Amazon or AWS”.
Amazon’s cloud computingarmwants to depose Mattis as he claims to have “highly relevant, first-hand knowledge about Trump’s animus toward Mr. Bezos and Amazon and the efforts President Trump took to pressure DoD officials” regarding the contract. AWS also claims that Esper intervened in the JEDI award process to “conduct an ‘examination’ at President Trump’s behest”.
ViaCNBC
After working with the TechRadar Pro team for the last several years, Anthony is now the security and networking editor at Tom’s Guide where he covers everything from data breaches and ransomware gangs to the best way to cover your whole home or business with Wi-Fi. When not writing, you can find him tinkering with PCs and game consoles, managing cables and upgrading his smart home.
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