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Judge Patricia E. Campbell-Smith disclosed her decision to
reject motions to dismiss part of Amazon's 2019 lawsuit by
Microsoft and the U.S. Department of Justice, filed when Donald
Trump was still president, but did not immediately make public
her opinion.
Amazon Web Services responded in a statement: "The record of
improper influence by former President Trump is disturbing, and
we are pleased the court will review the remarkable impact it
had on the JEDI contract award."
While president, Trump publicly derided Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos
and repeatedly criticized the company. Amazon had been seen as a
front-runner to win the contract.
In September, the U.S. Defense Department completed a
comprehensive re-evaluation and said it determined that
Microsoft still represented the best value for the government.
Microsoft said in a statement the ruling "changes little. Not
once, but twice, professional procurement staff at the (Defense
Department) chose Microsoft after a thorough review."
The company added it has "continued for more than a year to do
the internal work necessary to move forward on JEDI quickly."
The contract remains on hold after Judge Campbell-Smith granted
Amazon's request in February 2020 to temporarily halt the deal
from moving forward.
The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure Cloud (JEDI)
contract could reach as much as $10 billion and is part of a
broader digital modernization of the Pentagon aimed at making it
more technologically agile.
Amazon filed its lawsuit in November 2019, weeks after the
contract was awarded to Microsoft. It said the Pentagon decision
was full of "egregious errors", which it suggested were a result
of "improper pressure from Trump."
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Leslie Adler and
Sonya Hepinstall)
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