WASHINGTON, DC- Remember when Democrats had a meltdown after some Republicans sold stock just a stock market retraction last year? So do we.
So it will be interesting to see the reaction now that it has been revealed that Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) bought call options in Amazon.
Normally this might not be a huge deal, but given that it occurred only six weeks before the Pentagon announced it had canceled a multi-billion-dollar contract with Microsoft in favor of a new one which will likely benefit—wait for it—Amazon, Breitbart reports. Swamp? You decide.
This week, the Biden Pentagon announced cancelation of its multi-billion dollar JEDI cloud services contract with Microsoft while announcing a new initiative that Amazon would be able to compete for.
Amazon was widely believed to be the front-runner for the JEDI contract when it was initially conceived in 2017, however it was ultimately given to Microsoft in 2019.
Amazon sued, claiming they were overlooked in favor of Microsoft due to personal animus from then-President Donald Trump against Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who owns the Washington Post. The Post of course was one of the major publications with a major case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
In announcing the new contract called “Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability, or JWCC, it was described as a “multi-vendor” and “multi-cloud” platform, and both Microsoft and Amazon have been named as the top two contenders.
The Department intends to seek proposals from a limited number of sources, namely the Microsoft Corporation (Microsoft) and Amazon Web Services (AWS), as available market research indicates that these two vendors are the only Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) capable of meeting the Department’s requirements.
However, as noted in its Pre-Solicitation Notice, the Department will immediately engage with industry and continue its market research to determine whether any other U.S.-based hyperscale CSPs can also meet the DoD’s requirements. If so, the Department will also negotiate with those companies.
In announcing the above, the Pentagon’s Acting Chief Information Officer John Sherman said that although there is no guarantee, it is expected that both Microsoft and Amazon will “likely” be awarded parts of the new contract, he said during a conference call.
Pelosi’s husband’s “timing” was impeccable, as after the announcement, Amazon’s stock prices closed at a record high of $3675.74, which bested its previous closing record of $3,531.45 in September of last year, according to MarketWatch.
That record close coincided with the first day as Amazon’s new CEO for Andy Jassy. The close was Amazon’s best single-day percentage gain since November 4, 2020, the report said.
In a statement, Amazon said they welcomed the Pentagon’s decision:
We understand and agree with the DoD’s decision. Unfortunately, the contract award was not based on the merits of the proposals and instead was the result of outside influence that has no place in government procurement.” Amazon is apparently unfamiliar with the “issues” involved in government procurement procedures.
“We believe this is a clear positive for Amazon and potentially negative for the third-party data centers,” Raymond James analysts wrote in a note about the Pentagon’s decision, MarketWatch reported.
“We believe the shift to Amazon further cements its position as a leading cloud provider, particularly to government agencies.” With that in mind, does anybody expect the government to do anything to break Amazon’s stranglehold on the marketplace?
On May 21, Paul Pelosi bought call options worth between $500,001 and $1 million. On that day he also purchased Apple call options worth between $100,001 and $250,000. Those transactions were found on Nancy Pelosi’s latest financial disclosure report filed on July 2.
Breitbart noted that in reviewing Pelosi’s financial disclosures going back to 2009, they found that Paul Pelosi’s timing was impeccable surrounding JEDI-program related stock purchases.
The search for an updated cloud solution began in mid-2017 under then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan. The Pentagon was seeking the ability for the Department of Defense to access and share data faster.
On July 26, 2018, the Pentagon released its final request for proposals (RFP) for the JEDI program. Only one day after, on July 27, 2018, Pelosi’s husband made his first purchase of Amazon call options.
Just three months later, on October 12, 2018, Pelosi purchased additional call options worth as much as $6,000,000. But remember, Pelosi is for the poor and downtrodden.
The next year, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit from Oracle America, which sued the Pentagon when they were excluded from bidding on the contract.
That decision, on July 12, 2019 cleared the way for the Pentagon to award the contract to either Microsoft or Amazon. It was Amazon’s attorneys that defended the contract in this case.
Just ten days later, Pelosi made an additional purchase of Amazon call options worth an additional $1 million.
Former President Donald Trump intervened four days after, stating he wanted to ensure that the JEDI contract wasn’t biased toward Amazon.
In October 2019, the Pentagon awarded the contract to Microsoft, whereby Amazon filed a lawsuit arguing the Trump administration had interfered in the process. Amazon secured a restraining order preventing Microsoft from starting the project.
More stock purchases by Pelosi came in the midst of positive developments for Amazon.
On April 28, 2021, Amazon survived a motion to dismiss its case. Just a few days later, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said on April 30, 2021, that the Pentagon was going to review the JEDI contract. Just under one month later, Pelosi purchased more Amazon call options worth an additional $1 million.
The Pentagon’s decision while not unexpected, came about suddenly and put an end to the legal back-and-forth between the Pentagon and Amazon. Breitbart said they reached out to Nancy Pelosi’s spokesperson, but did not receive a response.
In a separate report, Fox Business noted the purchase of the Amazon call options, the Apple call options and the exercising of Alphabet (Google) call options came just a week prior to the House Judiciary Committee passing antitrust legislation targeting Google, Amazon, Apple and Facebook.
In a laughable statement, a Pelosi spokesperson told Fox Business:
“The speaker has no involvement or prior knowledge of these transactions, while adding, “The speaker does not own any stock.”
Last year, we reported on a United States Senator who dumped stock just before a huge market downturn which had heads turning. For more on that, we invite you to:
DIG DEEPER
Washington, D.C. – We are all familiar with the Democratic charge to have the President impeached over false allegations. Sadly, the current front runner for the Democratic ticket, Joe Biden, has admittedly done the very thing that they wanted to impeach Trump for. And Democrats are turning a blind eye to that fact.
Apparently, there is a difference between the two major parties bigger than politics…and it’s called accountability.
Richard Burr is a Republican Senator from North Carolina. And conservatives are calling for him to be held accountable.
Burr allegedly dump $1.56 million in stocks, which included shares of hotels and resorts. Selling off stock, in and of itself is not a big deal.
But when you are being briefed daily on what could happen to the economy as the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and you sell off close to $2 million just days before the stock market takes a nosedive…it becomes a very big deal.
“Senator Burr filed a financial disclosure form for personal transactions made several weeks before the U.S. and financial markets showed signs of volatility due to the growing outbreak,” his spokesperson said.
“As the situation continues to evolve daily, he has been deeply concerned by the steep and sudden toll this pandemic is taking on our economy.”
According to ProPublica, his biggest sales included companies that are among the most vulnerable to an economic slowdown.
He dumped up to $150,000 worth of shares of Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, a chain based in the United States that has lost two-thirds of its value.
And he sold up to $100,000 of shares of Extended Stay America, an economy hospitality chain. Shares of that company are now worth less than half of what they did at the time Burr sold.
The assets come from accounts that are held by Burr, belong to his spouse or are jointly held.
On his show Thursday night, Tucker Carlson did not hold back.
“There is no greater moral crime than betraying your country in a time of crisis,” Carlson said.
Carlson went on to say that Burr needed either to resign and face prosecution, or come out with an “honest explanation” of how he knew to offload all that stock just one week before the market drop by 30% if you weren’t guilty of insider trading.
Sen #RichardBurr must answer for this because it sure looks like you betrayed your country
If there is not a very compelling reason
This is where tar and feathers is appropriatehttps://t.co/UbnYe8h20Z— Jim Hanson (@JimHansonDC) March 20, 2020
“He had inside information about what could happen to our country, which is now happening, but he didn’t warn the public,” the conservative Fox News host said in response to the report.
“He didn’t give a prime time address. He didn’t go on television to sound the alarm.”
Burr was not alone in selling of stocks. Georgia Republican senator Kelly Loeffler also started making changes to her portfolio. All but 2 of her 29 transactions were sells. One of her purchases were stocks in Citrix, which is a “teleworking” software.
It is almost as though someone knew ahead of time that there would be a surge in people working from home.
While many stocks went down in value, Citrix is up marginally.
It should come as no surprise that when the Senate was being briefed, Burr and Loeffler sat next to each other.
Senators #RichardBurr and #KellyLoeffler, discussing how to profit from the coronavirus: pic.twitter.com/rhcTIb4OiL
— ''Brood X from Navarone''' 🦗😼 (@cstmoore) March 20, 2020
Another noteworthy piece of information about Burr is that in 2012 when the Senate passed a bill called the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012, he voted no.
“As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, I know that our committee receives sensitive information, including assessments and projections, before others in Congress and the general public (if ever). Senator Burr should suspend his chairmanship pending investigation,” Castro tweeted.
Much of the American public believes that the corruption racket in politics revolves around campaign finance. I think more of it revolves around personal corruption, like this example.
— Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) March 19, 2020
He also added:
“Much of the American Republic believes that the corruption racket in politics revolves around campaign finance. I think more of it revolves around personal corruption, like this example.”
It’s funny how quickly Democrats point a finger at the personal corruption they see in Republicans, yet they remain silent, or even endorse and condone that same type of corruption from members of their own party.
Just ask Ilhan Omar. She has been accused of funneling close to $370,000 to a firm where the man she was allegedly having an affair with is a partner.
Oh, let’s not forget that the FBI has been looking into allegations that she married her brother to help him through the immigration process.
When Omar ran for Congress in 2018, critics raised the issue that her suspicious marriage to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in 2009 constituted as immigration fraud because Elmi was her brother.
The marriage was later dissolved, but Omar filed joint tax returns with Elmi from 2009 to 2017.
This is where critics also accuse Omar of committing tax fraud.
In 2014 and 2015, Omar filed joint tax returns with a man named Ahmed Abdisalan Hirsi, her current husband.
So, she filed her taxes jointly in 2014 and 2015 with two different men?
This can result in criminal charges if she intended to illegally file the taxes jointly with the intention to cheat on her taxes owed.
Omar’s tax returns are not public, so there is no way to verify this information.
But this raises another question.
Democrats are demanding Donald Trump’s tax returns with no allegations of cheating on his income tax.
So, those on left are quick to point out the alleged illegal activity of Republicans…but when it comes to members of their own party…the silence is deafening.
—
Want to make sure you never miss a story from Law Enforcement Today? With so much “stuff” happening in the world on social media, it’s easy for things to get lost.
Make sure you click “following” and then click “see first” so you don’t miss a thing! (See image below.) Thanks for being a part of the LET family!
