Amazon Sues Pentagon Over $10 Billion Contract

Amazon has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Defense Department.

The complaint, filed Friday in a federal U.S. court, challenges the Pentagon's decision to award a $10 billion computing contract to Microsoft.

Amazon had been widely expected to receive the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure Cloud (JEDI) contract for the digital modernization of the Pentagon.

In August, however, U.S. President Donald Trump publicly questioned whether they should be awarded the contract.

Jeff Bezos, is also the owner of The Washington Post which has been critical of Trump and his administration.

Trump has called The Post part of the "fake news media."

Amazon has previously said that politics got in the way of a fair contracting process.

Last week, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the contract was awarded fairly and without any bias after Amazon announced its intention to challenge Microsoft receiving the contract.

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper says he's certain that the awarding of a $10 billion cloud-computing contract to Microsoft was done fairly.

Esper, who recused himself from the contract decision because his son had worked for one of the other unsuccessful bidders, said there was no "outside influence" on the decision makers.

ALSO READ: Microsoft Now The Most Valuable Public Company, Surpassing Apple.

Esper was asked about the controversy at a news conference Friday in Seoul, South Korea.

After the Pentagon awarded the contract to Microsoft in late October, Amazon announced its intent to challenge the decision in court. On Thursday said there was "unmistakable bias" on the government's part. (VOA)