Amazon thinks it lost a military cloud calculate declaration worth $ 10 billionto challenger Microsoftbecause our vendetta - wooly president want to personally “ screw ” CEO Jeff Bezos , court document show .
Per theNew York Times , Amazon wrote in afederal court complaintunsealed on Monday that Pentagon officials reviewed out-of-date Amazon submissions for the Joint Enterprise Defense Initiative ( JEDI ) project before grant the contract bridge to competitor Microsoft — whose CEO Satya Nadella is not currently the objective of one of Donald Trump ’s mostly one - sided feuds . ( Trump isreportedly obsessedwith “ Jeff Bozo”almost exclusively because the billionaire CEO also owns the “ fake news ” Washington Post , but this is also a piece whose list of top grudge includeswater - conserving can . ) Amazon ’s complaint in the United States Court of Federal Claims in Washington claim that Trump intervened in the contract processto hurt Bezos , “ his perceive political enemy , ” with the Defense Department making “ blatant , inexplicable errors ” complying with the White House ’s directive .
The Pentagon “ failed to know the legion case in which [ Amazon Web Service ’s ] demonstrated capability vastly exceeded performance requirements , ” Amazon ’s legal squad wrote , “ while ignoring instances where Microsoft of necessity failed to demonstrate its solvent fit the expert requirements . ” Amazon added in the complaint that the Pentagon had “ departed from the rule of procurance and follow — consciously or subconsciously — with its air force officer in chief ’s expressed desire to reject AWS ’s superior bidding . ”
Photo: Charles Dharapak ( (AP)
Amazon claims in the filing those factor include a last - minute requirement preventing it from using “ existing data point centers already certified for classified use and rather requiring AWS to build up new dedicated classified infrastructure for DoD , ” driving up the monetary value of its bid . Another assertion involve Secretary of Defense Mark Esper , who re - opened the JEDI dictation physical process after the departure of hispredecessor Jim Mattisin late 2018 . Amazon wrote that while Esper recused himself from matters involving the JEDI declaration on Oct. 22 , 2019,citing conflict of interest , the determination to award the contract to Microsoft had already happened five years earlier . The filing name this an “ unprecedented and outre endeavour to rewrite the factual record and unsully a unconscious process tainted by the President ’s intervention . ”
“ DoD ’s substantial and pervasive errors are hard to infer and out of the question to appraise separate and asunder from the President ’s repeatedly expressed determination to , in the Holy Scripture of the President himself , ‘ bonk Amazon , ’ ” Amazon write , relate to an order Trumpallegedly gave Mattis in 2018 .
The $ 10 billion is n’t all that ’s on the mesa . While JEDI was ab initio billed as a datum - management system for the military backend , it is also a possible opportunity for tech giantsto enlarge their footholdin the wildly lucrative contracting business give off the U.S.’sever - expand war machine . An April 2018article in Defense Oneindicated that top defense official such as Mattis consider cloud computing as a manner “ not just to finagle files , email , and paperwork but to push mission - critical information to front - line operators . ” Employee protests at the view of their work being used to fire conflictdrove Google outof the bidding procedure and create a ruckus at Microsoft , wherestaffers wrote a letterclaiming JEDI could have “ human suffering ” in sideline of “ little - terminus profit . ”
Amazon was widely consider to be the percipient front - offset for the JEDI contract until the bidding cognitive operation recruit its final phase angle . pretty tellingly , competition include Google , Microsoft , Oracle , and IBMwere reportedly furiousabout stipulations in the declaration that , to them , seemed designed to reset the troupe ’s itinerary of rival bidders ( as well as reports Amazon extend a Pentagon functionary working on the projecta moneymaking job ) . One DC lobbyist for Oracle , Kenneth Glueck , reportedly shop White House aides a memoranda claiming that Amazon won the contractdue to a “ conspiracy,”with the text file making it all the way to Trump ’s desk .
In a statement to Times , the Defense Department deny that Trump ’s hate of Bezos or any other outside factors played a role in its conclusion .
“ This source choice decision was made by an expert team of career public servant and military policeman from across the Department of Defense and in accord with D.O.D. ’s normal source - selection process , ” Pentagon spokeswoman Elissa Smith enjoin the newspaper . “ There were no extraneous influence on the author selection determination . ”
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