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Amazon, Erstwhile Trump Target, Is Helping Design Government Procurement Portal

Critics say tech behemoth’s involvement gives it a huge advantage.

Jeff Bezos and Donald Trump may publicly criticize each other, but that hasn’t stopped Amazon from doing big business with the federal government. Now it has been revealed that Amazon executives have been privately advising key members of the Trump administration on the launch of a new internet government purchasing portal, which is expected to generate billions of dollars for Bezos’ company. Critics say that if government infrastructure is being designed with input from Amazon, it gives the tech company a big advantage. Emails seen by The Guardian show that Amazon executive Anne Rung communicated with Mary Davie, a top official at the Government Services Authority (GSA), about the new portal, even before the legislation that created it became law. Rung was formerly a procurement official in the Obama administration. Amazon is also the frontrunner to win a $10 billion cloud-computing contract with the Pentagon, known as Jedi. It already operates a cloud service for the U.S. intelligence community, including a contract with the CIA. Last year, Amazon also won a contract valued at as much as $5.5 billion that made it the chief supplier of stationery and books to tens of thousands of local governments and municipalities across the U.S.