Amazon wants Trump’s answers on contract
Amazon wants President Donald Trump to submit to questioning over the tech company’s losing bid for a $10 billion military contract.
The Pentagon awarded the cloud computing project to Microsoft in October. Amazon later sued, arguing that Trump’s interference and bias against the company harmed Amazon’s chances.
Amazon was considered an early frontrunner for a project that Pentagon officials have described as critical to advancing the U.S. military’s technological advantage over adversaries. The project, known as Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, will store and process vast amounts of classified data, allowing the U.S. military to improve communications with soldiers on the battlefield and use artificial intelligence to speed up its war planning and fighting capabilities.
The Pentagon was preparing to announce its decision between finalists Amazon and Microsoft when Trump publicly waded into the fray in July. Trump said then that other companies told him the contract “wasn’t competitively bid,” and he said the administration would “take a very long look.” Oracle had also protested after it and IBM were eliminated from an earlier round of bidding.
Amazon is looking for more information about what happened before and after Trump ordered the review. Amazon’s court filing cites an alleged comment that surfaced in a recent book that said Trump in 2018 privately told then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to “screw Amazon” out of the contract.
Besides seeking Trump’s deposition, Amazon is also asking to depose Mattis.
In a court filing unsealed Monday, Amazon said Trump has a “well-documented personal animus” toward Amazon, CEO Jeff Bezos and The Washington Post, which Bezos owns.
Trump has accused Amazon of not paying its fair share of taxes and of putting brick-and-mortar stores out of business. Trump has also gone after Bezos personally and accused the Post of being Amazon’s “chief lobbyist.”
The Justice Department said it does not comment on ongoing litigation.