Voice of America
10 Dec 2019, 03:35 GMT+10
Amazon accused U.S. President Donald Trump of using "improper pressure" and bias that harmed its chances of winning a lucrative $10 billion contract from the U.S. Department of Defense.
Amazon said in a lawsuit unsealed Monday in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims that it lost the cloud computing contract, which was awarded to rival Microsoft, due to Trump's "personal vendetta against Mr. (Jeff) Bezos, Amazon, and The Washington Post."
Bezos owns Amazon and the Post. Trump has frequently attacked Bezos and Amazon for its low tax payments. and has accused the Post of spreading "fake news."
Amazon said in its lawsuit that Trump launched "repeated public and behind-the-scenes attacks to steer" the Pentagon cloud contract away from Amazon. It said Trump's interference made it impossible for the Department of Defense to choose a winner "reasonably, consistently, and in a fair and equal manner."
The suit is calling for the Pentagon to revisit its decision.
"The question is whether the president of the United States should be allowed to use the budget of DoD to pursue his own personal and political ends," the Amazon complaint states.
Pentagon spokeswoman Elissa Smith said in a statement Monday that the selection of Microsoft was made without external influence "by an expert team of career public servants and military officers."
The White House did not immediately comment on the lawsuit.
The high-stakes cloud computing project, formally called the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, is part of a Pentagon effort to store and process large amounts of classified data.
Amazon and Microsoft were the finalists for the project after Oracle and IBM were eliminated from contention.
Get a daily dose of India Gazette news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to India Gazette.
More InformationNEW YORK, New York - U.S. stock markets see-sawed Thursday as the judicial system became a key player in Donald Trump's trade wars....
PARIS, France: French farmers brought traffic to a crawl around Paris and gathered outside the National Assembly on May 26, using their...
HANOI, Vietnam: Amid shifting global trade dynamics and growing concerns over U.S. tariffs, France and Vietnam have signed more than...
NEW YORK, New York - U.S. stocks were weaker Wednesday, following Tuesday's heady gains when the Dow Jones jumped 741 points. Bond...
SAO PAULO, Brazil: Amid a surge in electric vehicle (EV) adoption and growing competition in Brazil, Chinese automaker GAC has officially...
CHICAGO, Illinois: McDonald's is closing its experimental beverage spinoff, CosMc's, less than two years after launching the standalone...
New Delhi [India], May 30 (ANI): The Election Commission of India (ECI) has launched 21 new initiatives over the past 100 days to enhance...
Alipurduar (West Bengal) [India], May 30 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated that Operation Sindoor has not ended yet, noting...
New Delhi [India], May 30 (ANI): Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala has said that party MP Shashi Tharoor's recent remarks about...
Kathmandu [Nepal], May 30 (ANI): Nepali royalists on Thursday launched a new phase of protest for the restoration of monarchy, which...
New Delhi [India], May 30 (ANI): Former Indian cricketers Mohammed Kaif, Irfan Pathan, and Suresh Raina hailed Royal Challengers Bengaluru...
Siwan (Bihar) [India], May 30 (ANI): Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor on Thursday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for...