Amazon says Trump's 'vendetta' lost it $10bn Pentagon contract

Company said ‘personal vendetta’ against Bezos, Amazon and the Washington Post cost it the cloud computing contract

Amazon says Donald Trump’s “improper pressure” and behind-the-scenes attacks harmed its chances of winning a $10bn Pentagon contract.

The Pentagon awarded the cloud computing contract to Microsoft in October.

Amazon argues in a lawsuit unsealed Monday that the decision should be revisited because of “substantial and pervasive errors“ and Trump’s interference.

Amazon and its founder, Jeff Bezos, have been a frequent target of Trump, even before he became president. Bezos personally owns the Washington Post, which Trump has referred to as “fake news” whenever unfavorable stories are published about him.

Amazon said it lost the deal due to Trump’s “personal vendetta against Mr Bezos, Amazon and the Washington Post”.

The Pentagon spokeswoman Elissa Smith said in a statement Monday the decision to select Microsoft “was made by an expert team of career public servants and military officers” and without external influence.

Formally called the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure plan, or Jedi, the military’s computing project would store and process vast amounts of classified data. The defense department has said it will help speed up its war planning and fighting capabilities.

Amazon and Microsoft became the finalists after Oracle and IBM were eliminated in an earlier round of the contract competition. Oracle had also sued, arguing the bidding was rigged in Amazon’s favor. Trump publicly waded into the bidding process over the summer, saying he heard complaints and wanted the Pentagon to take a closer look.

“The department is confident in the Jedi award and remains focused on getting this critical capability into the hands of our warfighters as quickly and efficiently as possible,” Smith said.

The White House didn’t immediately return an emailed request for comment Monday.