Pentagon probe unable to rule out White House influence on JEDI contract

[mahatmakanejeeves]

5. Pentagon barred from discussing Trump in JEDI contract probe

Hat tip, Joe.My.God

DEFENSE

Pentagon barred from discussing Trump in JEDI contract probe

Amazon sued the Defense Department last year, alleging that the Pentagon made several mistakes in its evaluation of bids.

By JACQUELINE FELDSCHER

04/15/2020 11:24 AM EDT

Updated: 04/15/2020 01:54 PM EDT

The Pentagon’s inspector general “could not definitively determine” whether the White House influenced the procurement process for a major cloud computing contract because senior Defense Department officials were barred from answering questions on the subject during interviews, according to a 313-page report released on Wednesday.

Department personnel who evaluated proposals and awarded the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract were not pressured by any senior DoD leaders, the IG found. But investigators were unable to rule out whether the White House interfered with the contract award because DoD's general counsel instructed senior DoD witnesses not to verbally answer questions about communications between the White House and Pentagon because of “the assertion of a ‘presidential communications privilege.’”

{snip}