The Pentagon is rejecting a key part of Amazon’s lawsuit over whether President Trump improperly intervened in a $10 billion cloud-computing contract. A DoD spokeswoman said Amazon was incorrect when it alleged that the Pentagon had already chosen Microsoft as the contract winner by the time Defense Secretary Mark Esper publicly recused himself from the process in October. Ten days later, the DoD chose Microsoft over Amazon as the winner of the contract.
The Hill spoke to McCarter Partner and Government Contracts Co-Chair Franklin Turner, who explained that he did not think that Esper’s decision to recuse himself was unusual, but added that it was strange for the Pentagon to wait until three days before the contract was awarded to announce Esper’s recusal.