A US Federal Court of Claims judge has refused to dismiss allegations that former President Trump interfered with the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract. JEDI is the massive €10 billion project to migrate the Pentagon's IT infrastructure to the cloud. It was awarded to Microsoft in 2019, but no work started as the decision became embroiled in legal litigation before it even started. Amazon argues that Trump improperly influenced the US Department of Defense (DoD) to attribute JEDI to Microsoft, affecting his own rhetoric. In response, the Defense Department and Microsoft had filed a joint petition to prevent Amazon from taking the allegations to court, but the new ruling means Amazon will be able to pursue its case.
Cancellation of the cards?
Amazon welcomed Microsoft's rejection of the motion. “Former President Trump's record of undue influence is disturbing, and we are pleased that the Court is considering the notable impact he had on the award of the JEDI contract. AWS remains the best technical option, the cheapest option, and would offer the best value to the Department of Defense and the US taxpayer,” an AWS spokesperson said. Amazon has already obtained a court order to prevent Microsoft from starting work on the JEDI project. Earlier this year, a memo revealed that the Pentagon was frustrated with all the legal wrangling surrounding the project. In fact, the memo hinted that if Amazon's complaint was upheld, the entire JEDI contract could be abandoned. Via GeekWire