It appears President Donald Trump will be a central figure in Amazon’s legal protest against the Defense Department’s October decision to award its massive Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract to rival Microsoft.
On Friday, Amazon filed a legal protest in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, alleging politics wrongfully influenced the Pentagon’s decision to award Microsoft the JEDI contract, which could be worth up to $10 billion over the next decade.
In the lawsuit, filed under seal, Amazon notified the court it intends to use four videos as exhibits, including two featuring Trump making negative remarks about Amazon. Another video features Fox News host Tucker Carlson asking Trump in July to stop the Pentagon from giving the contract to Amazon.
“We also believe it's critical for our country that the government and its elected leaders administer procurements objectively and in a manner that is free from political influence,” an Amazon spokesperson told Nextgov, reiterating a statement the company provided in early November upon announcing its intent to file the lawsuit. “Numerous aspects of the JEDI evaluation process contained clear deficiencies, errors, and unmistakable bias—and it’s important that these matters be examined and rectified."
Amazon and Microsoft were the last two companies vying for JEDI after a lengthy contracting process that has already featured three legal protests—one from IBM and two from Oracle—though bids from the latter two companies did not meet the Defense Department’s threshold for evaluation.
JEDI is considered one of the Pentagon’s most important contracts in years and through it, officials hope to link together wo ..
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