Amazon Bid Protest on JEDI Claims 'Improper Pressure' From Trump -- 2nd Update
10 December 2019 - 8:20AM
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 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 and Mr. 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. The
company's bid was clouded by conflict-of-interest allegations,
however, which are still under investigation by the Pentagon's
inspector general.
While the Pentagon initially concluded that the alleged conflict
didn't affect the integrity of the procurement process, it
nonetheless ruled in the end that Microsoft Corp. was more
qualified for the job.
In its newly public bid protest, Amazon says that Pentagon
officials made numerous missteps in evaluating its application
because of pressure from Mr. Trump.
The president 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." Mr. Trump also issued tweets
in which he complained about the process.
Mr. Trump has blamed Mr. Bezos for unfavorable coverage of his
administration in the Washington Post, which Mr. Bezos bought in
2013 for $250 million. The Post says its editorial decisions are
independent.
In recent congressional testimony, a top Pentagon technology
official, Dana Deasy, denied that Mr. Trump or the White House
influenced the JEDI selection process.
But Amazon's protest argues: "Rarely, if ever, has a President
engaged in such a blatant and sustained effort to direct the
outcome of a government procurement -- let alone because of
personal animus and political objectives."
The White House referred questions to the Pentagon, which in a
statement said the "selection decision was made by an expert team
of career public servants and military officers from across the
Department of Defense and in accordance with DOD's normal
source-selection process."
"There were no external influences on the source selection
decision," the statement said. "The department is confident in the
JEDI award and remains focused on getting this critical capability
into the hands of our warfighters as quickly and efficiently as
possible."
Microsoft, which has intervened in the Amazon lawsuit to defend
the award, didn't immediately comment.
Among other evidence for Mr. Trump's alleged bias, Amazon's
complaint cites a passage of a recent book by a former speechwriter
for Jim Mattis, a former Trump defense secretary. Author Guy
Snodgrass says in the book, "Holding the Line," that Mr. Trump
directed Mr. Mattis to "screw Amazon" out of the JEDI contract by
blocking its chance to bid on the JEDI deal. "Mattis demurred," he
added.
Amazon also says the Defense Department took "numerous actions"
during the evaluation process that disadvantaged Amazon.
For example, Amazon says that the Pentagon "at the eleventh
hour" changed its interpretation of the bid criteria, rejecting
Amazon's plan to use existing data centers to help fulfill the
contract requirements. That -- along with other unfair actions by
the Pentagon -- resulted in increases in Amazon's total evaluated
price, the company said.
The complaint also raises questions about the circumstances and
timing of the award. It says that Defense Secretary Mark Esper
announced his recusal from the process on Oct. 22, because of his
son's employment with unsuccessful bidder IBM Corp., while adding
that the process would continue through normal channels. But the
complaint says that the decision to award Microsoft had been made
five days earlier.
On Oct. 25, the Pentagon announced the award to Microsoft.
Write to John D. McKinnon at john.mckinnon@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 09, 2019 16:05 ET (21:05 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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