Court to Explore Whether Trump Officials Interfered in JEDI Contract
The Defense Department previously said lengthy litigation could threaten the contract’s future.
A federal judge Wednesday denied motions to dismiss allegations made by Amazon Web Services in November that the Trump administration politically interfered in the Defense Department’s Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud contract award.
The ruling, issued under seal, likely extends the legal challenge made by AWS after DOD awarded Microsoft its JEDI contract in September.
Judge Patricia Campbell-Smith’s decision opens the door for the court to further explore AWS’ allegations that political interference played a role in the Pentagon’s decision to select Microsoft allegations Pentagon officials haverepeatedly denied. However, the decision could threaten the JEDI contract itself. In a January memo, the Defense Department hinted it could abandon the JEDI cloud effort if the judge did not d
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A Federal Claims Court judge on Wednesday declined to toss out Amazon.com Inc.’s claims that political interference cost the company a lucrative Pentagon cloud contract, throwing the entire project into doubt.
Judge Patricia Campbell-Smith in Washington rejected requests by the government and Microsoft Corp., which was awarded the cloud computing deal in October 2019, to dismiss Amazon’s bias allegations because the company failed to raise them early enough. Her full opinion in the matter was filed under seal.
The contract for the project, known as the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, is valued at as much as $10 billion over a decade.
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Amazon Web Services Inc. won a small victory in its ongoing legal fight to block the U.S. Department of Defense’s decision to award the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud contract to rival Microsoft Corp. when a judge today declined to dismiss its protest lawsuit.
The JEDI contract, which could be worth up to $10 billion over the next 10 years, remains in limbo as U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Patricia Campbell-Smith issued a sealed decision that prevents Microsoft and the DOD from getting work underway on the contract.
Under the JEDI contract, Microsoft is supposed to provide the DOD with cloud computing infrastructure and services that are designed to modernize its information technology systems.
The cloud giant claimed that the bidding for the $10 billion Joint Enterprise and Defence Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud migration contract was flawed and that the then president, Donald Trump, had used his position to influence the final decision. 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, an AWS spokesperson said. We continue to look forward to the Court s review of the many material flaws in the DoD s evaluation.
The claims against Trump have been widely reported but, until now, haven t been considered in a legal setting. According to a book written by Guy Snodgrass,
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