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Defense Secretary Jim Mattis had a secret meeting with a top Amazon cloud sales executive in 2017 before the Pentagon announced a $10 billion cloud computing contract that critics say was designed to be fulfilled only by Amazon.
The Intercept further noted that there are allegations that former DOD official Deap Ubhi, who left to work for Amazon in 2017, "worked on the preliminary research for the JEDI program in the late summer and fall of 2017" and was "also engaged in a secret job negotiation with Amazon for months, complete with salary discussions, offers of signing bonuses, and lucrative stock options."
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) where he asked Meadows about the secret meeting that Mattis had with the Amazon official.
"So a detail that bothered me and correct me if I'm getting this wrong, Secretary Mattis met with this Amazon official but then the Pentagon tried to keep that meeting secret as if it were some national security secret, which of course it's not,"
Well, when you look at a procurement process, they should be open and transparent and competitive and when you look at it keeping you know somebody as high as General Mattis meeting with a potential bidder of a contract of $10 billion and even beyond that there are some suggestions the Department of Defense inspector general is looking at this in terms of possible conflict of interest," Meadows responded. "So whether it be with General Mattis or with other individuals, what we want to make sure of is that the American people get the best value for their dollar and you can't do that if you're designing a contract to go just to one bidder.