Amazon vs. Oracle: Effort to turn Trump against Amazon’s bid for $10B contract

CNN — Tech giant Oracle’s push to scuttle a bid by its rival Amazon to win a highly sought-after defense contract has reached President Donald Trump’s desk – a possible attempt to appeal to the President’s well-known animosity toward the online retail giant and its founder, Jeff Bezos. White House officials in recent weeks have shown Trump a document that alleges a large conspiracy to award Amazon a 10-year, $10 billion contract to build the Pentagon’s cloud computing network, according to three sources familiar with the matter. When asked by a reporter about the contract during a July 18 appearance in the Oval Office with the prime minister of the Netherlands, Trump said, he’d been getting “tremendous complaints about the contract with the Pentagon and with Amazon,” including from Microsoft, Oracle and IBM. The letter, which was first reported by Axios, states that awarding the contract would be “premature” because the Pentagon’s Office of Inspector General “is still investigating potential conflicts of interest by DoD employees in awarding the JEDI contract.” The same day, Dana Deasy, the chief information officer for the Department of Defense, responded to Johnson’s request to delay the award until the inspector general’s office completed its probe, according to a letter obtained by CNN. She played no role, and exercised no influence, in connection with any government contract, including – as the Department of Defense has confirmed repeatedly – the JEDI contract.” A spokesman for former Defense secretary Carter, who is featured on Oracle’s chart, told CNN that he “played no role whatsoever in the JEDI contract competition, which was initiated after he left the Department of Defense.” As Defense Secretary, Esper has the power to halt the award of any defense contract, though he would have to have a legitimate reason for doing so.