Lawmakers seek new probe into AWS JEDI collusion
Letters from Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Attorney General Merrick Garland and acting Defense Department Inspector General Sean O’Donnell asking for information, documents and, in the case of the Justice Department, a probe into possible anticompetitive behavior on the part of Amazon Web Services.
Two Republican lawmakers want the Departments of Defense and Justice Departments to reopen a probe into conflicts related to the Pentagon’s $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud computing program.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), leaders on antitrust subcommittees in their respective chambers, sent letters on May 4 to Attorney General Merrick Garland and acting Defense Department Inspector General Sean O’Donnell as well as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos asking for information, documents and, in the case of the Justice Department, a probe into possible anticompetitive behavior on the part of Amazon Web Services.
The letters detail allegations of interference by former defense officials with ties to Amazon that were the subject of a DOD OIG investigation and circulated in press reports after the JEDI request for proposals was released and before the eventual award to Microsoft in October 2019.
The JEDI contract remains the subject of litigation. AWS is pursuing a lawsuit in the Court of Federal Claims seeking to overturn the award to Microsoft. AWS alleges that political and personal animus on the part of former President Donald Trump toward Bezos led procurement officials to award the contract to Microsoft. Just last week, the judge in the case ruled against DOJ and Microsoft in their bid to dismiss the charges of interference and uphold the award. DOD officials have signaled that a lengthy litigation process could lead them to rethink their enterprise cloud strategy.
This article was first posted to FCW, a sibling site to Defense Systems.