President Trump has made no secret of the fact that he did not want the contract to go to Amazon, owned by Jeff Bezos. 

Amazon injunction stops the JEDI project

Microsoft, Oracle, Amazon, and IBM are among those that submitted proposals. 

Amazon’s protest prompted a Pentagon’s watchdog investigation and report, released in April. The department’s inspector general said it was unable to rule on the issue because the Pentagon’s general counsel instructed witnesses not to answer questions about conversations between the White House and Pentagon due to “the assertion of a presidential communications privilege.’”

IBM and Oracle argued that the conflict of interest was within the DOD and Amazon since a former Amazon employee helped write the requirements for the initial call for contract proposals and was involved in the project planning (presumably keeping Amazon in the loop).

However, on Thursday the Court of Appeals denied Oracle’s argument.

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