Well, let's read the actual report [1]
"We sought to review whether there was any White House influence on the JEDI cloud
procurement. We could not review this matter fully because of the assertion of a “presidential
communications privilege,” which resulted in several DoD witnesses being instructed by the DoD Office
of General Counsel not to answer our questions about potential communications between White House
and DoD officials about JEDI. Therefore, we could not definitively determine the full extent or nature of
interactions that administration officials had, or may have had, with senior DoD officials regarding the
JEDI Cloud procurement.
We provided the DoD Office of General Counsel with a list of questions, separated specific to
each witness, and requested that they convey these questions to the White House Counsel’s Office for
review and determination as to whether the White House would in fact invoke the presidential
communications privilege. The DoD Office of General Counsel told us they then asked White House
Counsel to review the list of questions and identify the subject areas, or specific questions, over which
the President would assert the presidential communications privilege.
After our repeated requests for a response, on February 25, 2020, the DoD Office of General
Counsel stated that White House Counsel was only willing to allow witnesses to provide written answers
to our questions where the presidential communications privilege was invoked; however, it stated that
no representation could be made as to the number or extent of questions that could be answered, and
that any written responses would require further review by White House Counsel on the issue of
maintaining the privilege. We carefully considered this response and concluded it would not be an
appropriate and practical way to conduct our review, because there was no assurance as to which
questions would be answered, it would unduly delay the report, it would not allow for an interview and
inevitable follow up questions, and it would not assure that we would be receiving full information from
the witnesses. We therefore declined to proceed in this manner. We further discuss the details
regarding this matter in Section III below.
However, we believe the evidence we received showed that the DoD personnel who evaluated
the contract proposals and awarded Microsoft the JEDI Cloud contract were not pressured regarding
their decision on the award of the contract by any DoD leaders more senior to them, who may have
communicated with the White House. We interviewed the personnel involved in the factor evaluation
and source selection processes, including factor and selection board chairs, the Source Selection
Authority, and the Procuring Contracting Officer. Most of their identities and involvement in the
procurement award were unknown to White House staff and even to the senior DoD officials. None of
these witnesses told us they felt any outside influence or pressure for or against a particular competitor as they made their decisions on the award of the contract. These witnesses also told us that public statements from the President and “media swirl” about the contract did not directly or indirectly
influence the integrity of the procurement process or the outcome of the JEDI Cloud source selection.
Yet, these media reports, and the reports of President Trump’s statements about Amazon,
ongoing bid protests and “lobbying” by JEDI Cloud competitors, as well as inaccurate media reports
about the JEDI Cloud procurement process, may have created the appearance or perception that the
contract award process was not fair or unbiased."
[1] https://media.defense.gov/2020/Apr/15/2002281438/-1/-1/1/REP...