Amazon to challenge Pentagon cloud contract in court

Amazon is taking the battle over the Pentagon’s $10 billion cloud-computing contract to federal court.

Amazon’s cloud-computing arm plans to challenge the Pentagon’s surprising decision to award the contract to Microsoft in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, an Amazon Web Services (AWS) spokesperson told The Hill on Thursday.

“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,” an AWS spokesperson said in a statement, referring to the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract.

Last week, Amazon filed paperwork declaring it will challenge the decision in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, which hears monetary claims against the government.

The development was first reported by The Federal Times, which obtained a video of AWS CEO Andy Jassy telling employees at an all-hands meeting that the company plans to “protest the decision and push the government to shine a light on what really happened.”

“AWS is uniquely experienced and qualified to provide the critical technology to the U.S. military needs, and remains committed to supporting the DoD’s [Defense Department’s] modernization effort,” the AWS spokesperson said. “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.”

Amazon’s comments make it clear that the company’s complaints will revolve around whether the Pentagon’s decision to award the contract to Microsoft was swayed by President Trump, who publicly called on the Department of Defense to investigate the contract over the summer. Trump questioned if the process unfairly favored Amazon, which was widely seen as the front-runner.