The Amazon logo is displayed on a screen at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York.The Associated Press
Amazon Web Services said on Monday it was seeking to depose U.S. President Donald Trump and Defence Secretary Mark Esper in its lawsuit over whether the President was trying “to screw Amazon” when the Pentagon awarded a contract for cloud computing to rival Microsoft Corp.
The Amazon.com Inc. unit alleged that Mr. Trump, who has publicly derided Amazon head Jeff Bezos and repeatedly criticized the company, exerted undue influence on the decision to deny it the US$10-billion contract.
Known as the Joint Enterprise Defence Infrastructure Cloud, or JEDI, the contract is intended to give the military better access to data and technology from remote locations.
In the lawsuit, Amazon said it seeks discovery “demonstrating exactly how President Trump’s order to ‘screw Amazon’ was carried out during the decision-making process.”
Without this, “the Court cannot objectively and fully evaluate AWS’s credible and well-grounded allegations about bias and bad faith,” the lawsuit said.
Mr. Bezos also owns the Washington Post, whose coverage has been critical of Mr. Trump.
Along with Mr. Trump and Mr. Esper, Amazon seeks to depose former defence secretary James Mattis, Pentagon chief information officer Dana Deasy and four other procurement officials, court records show.
An Amazon spokesperson said, “President Trump has repeatedly demonstrated his willingness to use his position as President and Commander in Chief to interfere with government functions – including federal procurements – to advance his personal agenda.
“The question is whether the President of the United States should be allowed to use the budget of the DoD to pursue his own personal and political ends,” the spokesperson added.
The lawsuit also says Amazon’s protest against the decision occurs against the background of impeachment, “which is grounded in the President’s repeated refusal to separate his personal interests from the national interest.” Mr. Trump has been acquitted on impeachment charges by the Republican-controlled Senate.
The lawsuit also mentions other instances of alleged interference from Mr. Trump.
For example, his alleged interference in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ award of a US$400-million border wall contract to Fisher Industries in December, 2019, and a report that Mr. Trump intervened in the General Services Administration’s solicitation of bids to move the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s headquarters to a new campus in the suburbs.
The current FBI offices are near a Washington hotel owned by Mr. Trump’s company.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The White House declined to comment.
Last month, Amazon filed a motion in court to delay the Department of Defence deal with Microsoft until a court rules on its protest of the contract award.
The procurement process has been delayed by legal complaints and conflict of interest allegations. Mr. Esper has denied there was bias, and said the Pentagon made its choice fairly and freely without external influence.