Amazon Allegedly Lost $10 Billion JEDI Contract Due to Trump Interference

by
Wanguba Muriuki
My articles My books
Follow on:

According to the latest reports, Amazon alleges that it lost out on a $10 billion defense contract since one person hated the company: President Donald Trump. The ‘improper pressure’ and behind-the-scenes attacks by the president harmed the company’s chances of getting this contract. The Pentagon gave the controversial cloud computing contract to Microsoft in October. Amazon appealed the decision practically immediately.

In a redacted complaint from a previously filed lawsuit, Amazon explained how it lost the JEDI (Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure) contract. President Trump is accused of steering the JEDI Contract away from AWS. It is believed that he did it to harm his perceived political enemy, Jeffrey P. Bezos. Bezos is the owner of the Washington Post, CEO of AWS’ parent company, Amazon.com, Inc., and the richest person in the world.

Amazon said in a lawsuit unsealed on December 9 in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims that the reached decision should be revisited. According to the company, there should be a revisit since there were “substantial and pervasive errors” and Trump’s interference. Amazon and Bezos were frequent targets of Trump even before he became president.

It might be possible that the Pentagon had viable reasons for rejecting the company’s bid for the $10-billion high-tech contract in favor of Microsoft. But, Amazon is convinced that it lost that deal as a result of Trump’s “personal vendetta against Mr. Bezos, Amazon, and the Washington Post.”

Trump Interference

For now, nothing is clear in the context of this lawsuit. President Trump openly interfered in the Department of Defense’s contracting process. That interference has placed the result under a permanent cloud of uncertainty. The main question that lingers is whether the US president should be left to use the DoD budget to settle his personal and political scores.

Pentagon’s spokeswoman, Elissa Smith, said on December 9 that the decision to choose Microsoft was fair and transparent. She says that an expert team of career public servants and military officers were involved in making that decision. Based on her statement, there was no external interference.

According to Amazon’s complaint:

“DoD’s substantial and pervasive errors are hard to understand and impossible to assess separate and apart from the President’s repeatedly expressed determination to, in the words of the President himself, ‘screw Amazon.'”

Amazon’s complaint reveals all the methods it thinks the DoD was unfair in the evaluation of its JEDI proposal. But, most of the reasons were redacted maybe for security reasons. Amazon redacted probably due to the sensitive nature of access to the Pentagon’s cloud. According to Amazon, the result is:

“The blatant, inexplicable errors in DoD’s award to Microsoft make plain that President Trump’s message had its intended and predictable effect.”

Amazon has laid out a heavy case citing majorly from Trump’s own words and multiple media reports. Nonetheless, it is not probable that Amazon and Bezos will solicit much sympathy because it is another matter wholly whether or not the courts will care. Some of the tech workers did not like the idea of their work being used by the U.S. military.

Author: Wanguba Muriuki

Wanguba Muriuki is a content crafter passionate about putting everything into writing. He is passionate about Blockchain and Traveling. He is also an experienced creative and technical writer. Everything and everyone has a story to tell. What better way to capture the real story than in words.

Thank you!

You have successfully joined our subscriber list.