Amazon Bid Protest on JEDI Claims 'Improper Pressure' From Trump
December 09 2019 - 11:02AM
Dow Jones News
By John D. McKinnon
WASHINGTON -- Amazon.com Inc. said President Trump exerted
"improper pressure" on the Pentagon to keep a lucrative
cloud-computing deal from going to his perceived political enemy,
company founder Jeffrey Bezos.
In a complaint filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in
Washington, Amazon said the president "launched repeated public and
behind-the-scenes attacks" on the contract and the company to steer
the contract away from Amazon. Mr. Trump's aim was "to harm his
perceived political enemy -- Jeffrey P. Bezos," according to the
complaint, which was made public Monday.
Amazon was long considered the favorite to win the Joint
Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, contract, which is
valued at as much as $10 billion over the next decade.
Mr. Trump on July 19 called for an investigation of the Pentagon
contract, before the award. "I'm getting tremendous complaints
about the contract with the Pentagon and Amazon," Mr. Trump told
reporters at the time. "I will be asking them to look very closely
to see what's going on."
The Defense Department investigated and cleared Amazon of
conflict-of-interest allegations, but it nonetheless ruled in the
end that Microsoft Corp. was more qualified for the job.
In congressional testimony, a top Pentagon technology official,
Dana Deasy, has denied that Mr. Trump or the White House influenced
the JEDI selection process.
Write to John D. McKinnon at john.mckinnon@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 09, 2019 10:47 ET (15:47 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024