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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhere others failed, now Amazon is taking up the case against the president
Feb. 12, 2020 at 6:00 am Updated Feb. 12, 2020 at 3:59 pm
By Danny Westneat
Seattle Times columnist
First to have a crack at it was Robert Mueller. Next up was Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats, who took a mighty swing but also whiffed.
Could the one to finally strike a blow be
Amazon?
The filings this week in an obscure federal contracting court by our Seattle tech bad boys made some headlines, mostly because Jeff Bezos and company are brazenly seeking to depose the baddest boy of all, Donald Trump.
But Amazon Web Services v. United States of America seems to me to have the potential to develop into a full-blown political scandal. The motions made Monday show that our little Seattle online bookstore has decided to throw standard business and lobbying caution to the wind by joining into an all-out, and overtly political, war with the U.S. president.
At issue is a $10 billion Defense Department contract to transition the military into cloud computing. These are typically boring but important public bid fights, in which both companies and the government must follow arcane procurement rules on complex proposals that can run to tens of thousands of pages.
Long story shorter: Amazon thought it had won the big contract, but then lost it to Microsoft last fall after a seemingly abrupt turnaround. Thats where all hell breaks loose.
This is not an ordinary bid protest, the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington declared in a follow-up court filing on Tuesday. Plaintiff Amazon
alleges not only that the U.S. Department of Defense inaccurately evaluated the technical aspects of its proposal for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contractbut also that DoD did so because President Donald J. Trump engaged in a blatant and sustained effort to direct the outcome in order to pursue his own personal and political ends.
More: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/where-others-failed-now-amazon-is-taking-up-the-case-against-the-president/
lapfog_1
(29,166 posts)in my time in federal government service... I'd say the case is likely to have merit, but I would need to see the RFP and the technical and financial evaluations...
Don't expect this to go to the point where the President has to testify or something.
Probably the most that would happen is a change in the contract award or potentially a re-compete.
mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)I think the new AG (hopefully Kamala!) might just want to have a word ...
Stinky The Clown
(67,669 posts)How many billionaires you gonna fuck with, you asshole?
dchill
(38,315 posts)HipChick
(25,485 posts)so this appeal might have some legs after all..
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)offenses is a mile long and growing!!!! Guess we'll just have to hope the courts don't get tainted, oh wait, he's doing that too.
Wish some brave souls like Steve Cohen D-TN and Al Green, would take their brilliant November 15, 2017 Articles of Impeachment, and go to work adding ALL. Get it in the history books.
BTW...did not know these investigations were underway:
MFGsunny
(2,356 posts)Stonepounder
(4,033 posts)Yeah, the enemy of my enemy and all that, but I am currently in a pinched battle with Amazon who is trying to ratfuck me. See:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10181317652
and
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10181318225
Hekate
(90,189 posts)greyl
(22,990 posts)csziggy
(34,119 posts)Whether it is his or his government's.
Cryptoad
(8,254 posts)way things are going it not too long before Amazon will have to pay protection $$$ to the Don....