Amazon Takes An Extraordinary Step To Stop Microsoft From Building Out Pentagon’s JEDI Deal

Amazon filed a restraining order Monday to temporarily block Microsoft from building out a multi-billion dollar Pentagon project, a move that could potentially delay implementation of the program.

The two tech behemoths crafted a proposed schedule to deal with the ongoing lawsuit, including Amazon’s court order, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. Amazon is suing to overturn the Department of Defense’s decision to hand Microsoft a $10 billion cloud-computing project.

Amazon argued in a statement in November that President Donald Trump’s alleged bias against the company’s founder, billionaire Jeff Bezos, played a part in the DOD’s move.

Amazon was long considered a front-runner for the so-called Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI. The decision to give Microsoft the deal came in October 2019 after Trump, a Bezos critic, instructed the DOD in August to put the contract on hold.

Amazon Web Services “intends to file a motion for temporary restraining order and/or preliminary injunction to prevent the issuance of substantive task orders under the contract, which the United States has previously advised AWS and the Court will begin on February 11,” the company said Monday in the filing.

Bezos’s company appeared to be a shoe-in until one of its competitors began asking questions.

Oracle, a computing giant, stated in a May complaint that former DOD official Deap Ubhi was offered shares in Amazon and a salary with the tech giant while he was finding a company to help build out JEDI. Ubhi never recused himself, according to the document. Trump found out about the deal.

Amazon has not responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.