# Judge grants Amazon motion for pause in Microsoft's Pentagon contract work



## YooA (Feb 14, 2020)

Apparently companies can be powerful enough to just halt the improvement of military infrastructure if they're a little upset. Since Amazon has succeeded in temporarily pausing the contract awarded to Microsoft, I thought I'd make a thread for comment on the case if it develops further.

The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, cloud computing contract is intended to modernize the Pentagon’s IT operations. The contract could be worth up to $10 billion for services rendered over as many as 10 years. Microsoft was awarded the contract on Oct. 25.









						Judge grants Amazon motion for pause in Microsoft's Pentagon contract work
					

A U.S. judge on Thursday granted Amazon.com Inc's request to temporarily ha...




					www.reuters.com
				




*Judge grants Amazon motion for pause in Microsoft's Pentagon contract work*






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A U.S. judge on Thursday granted Amazon.com Inc’s request to temporarily halt the U.S. Department of Defense and Microsoft Corp from moving forward on an up-to-$10 billion cloud computing deal that Amazon says reflected undue influence by President Donald Trump.

Amazon, which had been seen as a front-runner to win the contract, filed a lawsuit in November just weeks after the contract was awarded to Microsoft. Trump has publicly derided Amazon head Jeff Bezos and repeatedly criticized the company.

Judge Patricia Campbell-Smith issued a preliminary injunction but did not release her written opinion. She also ordered Amazon to post $42 million in the event the injunction was issued wrongfully.

The Amazon lawsuit said the Defense Department’s decision was full of “egregious errors,” which were a result of “improper pressure from President Donald Trump, who launched repeated public and behind-the-scenes attacks” to steer the contract away from Amazon “to harm his perceived political enemy” Bezos.

Bezos also owns the Washington Post, whose coverage has been critical of Trump and which has frequently been a target of barbs by Trump about the news media.

The Pentagon, which had planned to start work on the contract on Friday, said it was disappointed in the ruling.

It added it remained “confident in our award of the JEDI Cloud contract to Microsoft.”

Defense Secretary Mark Esper previously denied there was bias and said the Pentagon made its choice fairly and freely without external influence.

Alexander Major, a partner at McCarter & English, said: “The court has confirmed through the injunction that Amazon’s challenges with respect to this procurement are not trivial. It’s not guaranteed that they will prevail but the fact that they got it at all is a big deal.”

*TESTIMONY SOUGHT FROM TRUMP*

As part of the lawsuit, Amazon asked the court in January to pause the execution of the contract, popularly known as the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure Cloud, or JEDI. The contract is intended to give the military better access to data and technology from remote locations.

Earlier this week, Amazon’s cloud computing unit, Amazon Web Services, said it was seeking to depose Trump and Esper in its lawsuit over whether the president was trying “to screw Amazon” over the contract.

Amazon also seeks to question other officials involved in the decision and alleged that Trump had a history of inappropriately intervening in governmental decisions. Amazon called the process “fatally flawed and highly unusual.”

The procurement process has been delayed by legal complaints and conflict-of-interest allegations.

The judge told Amazon and the Pentagon to confer by Feb. 27 on what portions of the opinion can be released publicly.

Microsoft said in a statement: “We have confidence in the Department of Defense, and we believe the facts will show they ran a detailed, thorough and fair process.”

- End of Article -​
Positions:


			
				Amazon said:
			
		

> Amazon Web Services is uniquely experienced and qualified to provide the critical technology the U.S. military needs, and remains committed to supporting the DoD’s modernization efforts, 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. 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





			
				Microsoft said:
			
		

> For over 40 years, Microsoft has delivered innovative, proven and secure technologies to the US Department of Defense. We brought our best efforts to the rigorous JEDI evaluation process and appreciate that DoD has chosen Microsoft. We are proud that we are an integral partner in DoD’s overall mission cloud strategy. As was articulated throughout the JEDI procurement, the DoD has a singular objective -- to deploy the most innovative and secure commercially available technology to satisfy the urgent and critical needs of today’s warfighters. While we are disappointed with the additional delay we believe that we will ultimately be able to move forward with the work to make sure those who serve our country can access the new technology they urgently require. We have confidence in the Department of Defense, and we believe the facts will show they ran a detailed, thorough and fair process in determining the needs of the warfighter were best met by Microsoft





			
				Department of Defense spokesperson Lt. Col. Robert Carver  said:
			
		

> We are disappointed in today’s ruling and believe the actions taken in this litigation have unnecessarily delayed implementing DoD’s modernization strategy and deprived our warfighters of a set of capabilities they urgently need. However, we are confident in our award of the JEDI cloud contract to Microsoft and remain focused on getting this critical capability into the hands of our warfighters as quickly and efficiently as possible



Bezos can stay mad and fuck off. I don't see how Trump could have undue influence when he's the commander in chief, as if he owns stake in Microsoft. I'd expect Bezos to be the kind of guy willing to sell out to the chinese anyways. Microsoft is the patriotic choice. Hopefully the injunction is found to be issued wrongfully, Amazon loses that $42 million, and the story ends there.


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## ??? (Feb 14, 2020)

Honestly fuck both Microsoft and Amazon. One is an employment program for Indians, the other is a shill for cheap chink shit.


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## Mediocre (Feb 14, 2020)

Must be nice to basically go "reeeeeeeeee that's not fair we want to contract!".


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## Spiteful Crow (Feb 14, 2020)

Just how powerful does Mr. Bezos think he is? Bad things happen to people who inconvenience the United States military.


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## F/lying Frankenstein (Feb 14, 2020)

Why would Trump try to "screw Amazon"? Bezos' ex-wife did it already, through her divorce.


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## MrJokerRager (Feb 14, 2020)

Spiteful Crow said:


> Just how powerful does Mr. Bezos think he is? Bad things happen to people who inconvenience the United States military.


So was the single magic bullet theory ever true or was it the fucker on the grassy knoll?


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## Splendid (Feb 14, 2020)

MrJokerRager said:


> So was the single magic bullet theory ever true or was it the fucker on the grassy knoll?


There are contradictory government reports. The debate rages on to this day.


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## Reverend (Feb 14, 2020)

??? said:


> Honestly fuck both Microsoft and Amazon. One is an employment program for Indians, the other is a shill for cheap chink shit.



Which is which, i'm very confused.


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## Save Goober (Feb 14, 2020)

Bad day for Microsoft. I hope this trillion dollar company is able to recover and find work somehow.


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## Cat Menagerie (Feb 14, 2020)

F/lying Frankenstein said:


> Why would Trump try to "screw Amazon"? Bezos' ex-wife did it already, through her divorce.



He did it himself by sticking his dick in that ugly mistress of his.


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## David Allen Coe (Feb 14, 2020)

This is when Jeff Bezos dramatically steps down from Amazon and anoints A PROUD STRONG BLACK LESBIAN WOMAN WHO DON'T NEED NO MAN, so that the Department of Defense has to use Amazon for their racial quota.

But seriously, why the hell would the DoD _WANT _to work with them after this? They've proved that they will put their own petty interests above that of the U.S. Military. Go fuck yourself Bezos.


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## acmeurquhart (Feb 14, 2020)

A pox on both their fag houses.


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