Amazon claims Trump was motivated by his dislike of Jeff Bezos and influenced by Oracle CEO Safra Catz to 'screw' the company out of the $10 billion JEDI contract
- Amazon said President Trump was influenced by Oracle CEO Safra Catz to "screw" the tech giant's bid for the $10 billion JEDI contract.
- In a federal court filing Monday related to Amazon's legal challenge to the DoD's decision to award the contract to Microsoft, Amazon said Trump's public criticism of the Amazon bid was "emboldened by allies who were Amazon's competitors," including by Oracle.
- Amazon cited a 2018 private dinner hosted by Trump that included Catz where the Oracle CEO reportedly "advocated against awarding" the JEDI contract to Amazon.
- "President Trump's discussions with Ms. Catz and his advisors culminated in the summer of 2018, when he ordered his then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis to 'screw Amazon' out of the JEDI Contract," Amazon said in the court filing.
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Amazon is blaming its failure to win the Defense department's JEDI cloud contract on trash talking by competitors, pointing the finger at Oracle in particular.
In a court filing on Monday, Amazon said it didn't win the $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract because President Trump disliked its CEO Jeff Bezos, and claims that Oracle exploited and inflamed that animosity with a sustained campaign of anti-Amazon attacks.
The Defense Department awarded the JEDI contract last year to Microsoft, in a stunning defeat for the tech giant, the most dominant player in the cloud computing business. Amazon has launched a legal challenge to the decision.
In its legal filing, Amazon said Trump's public animosity toward Bezos, who is also the owner of the Washington Post, was a key factor in its defeat. The company also argued that Trump was "emboldened by allies who also were Amazon's competitors" who put the company "in the crosshairs of his campaign against Mr. Bezos and Amazon by deliberately influencing DoD's procurement decision."
Amazon specifically cited Oracle's Catz, who was a member of the Trump presidential transition team. The company said Trump held a private dinner in 2018 in which Catz "advocated against awarding" the JEDI contract to Amazon.
"In the days surrounding his dinner with Ms. Catz, President Trump increased his negative public rhetoric toward Amazon," Amazon said.
Amazon said Trump's conversations with Catz and his advisors "culminated in the summer of 2018, when he ordered his then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis to 'screw Amazon' out of the JEDI contract."
Amazon was apparently citing an account in "Holding the Line," a book on former Defense Secretary James Mattis' stint in the Trump administration written by his former speechwriter Gun Sondgrass.
Oracle could not immediately be reached for comment.
Amazon's argument citing Oracle and Catz's potential role in the JEDI decision underscores the bitter rivalry between the two giants, which intensified in the battle over JEDI.
Although Oracle was not itself considered a real contender for the project, the company waged an aggressive legal campaign challenging the Pentagon's decision to name Amazon and Microsoft as finalists for the contract.
That challenge was rejected by a federal court. But some analysts believe Oracle's legal campaign helped delay the final decision and essentially helped Microsoft prevail.
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