Dec 14, 2019

Palantir lands another Pentagon contract

Peter Thiel on Fox & Friends in Aug. 2019. Photo: John Lamparski/Getty Images

The Defense Department announced on Friday that it cinched a roughly $110 million contract with Palantir, the data-mining company founded by billionaire investor Peter Thiel, the Washington Post reports.

The big picture: Palantir already holds more than $1.5 billion in federal government contracts — just over $1 billion of which was with the Defense Department, as of August. The company, founded in 2004, has partnered closely with the agency since its inception, when it reportedly worked on projects in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Details: The newly announced $110 million deal is the first installment of "a four-year, $440 million program called Vantage, formerly known as Army Leader Dashboard," per the Post.

  • Doug Philippone, head of Palantir's operation in D.C., told the Post that "the project will allow military agencies to harness data to make better strategic decisions."

Go deeper: Report blasts Palantir for ICE work, Trump ties

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Axios
Updated 2 mins ago - Politics & Policy

Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

  1. Global: Total confirmed cases as of 7 a.m. ET: 12,739,269 — Total deaths: 565,704 — Total recoveries — 7,021,460 — Map.
  2. U.S.: Total confirmed cases as of 7 a.m. ET: 3,247,782 — Total deaths: 134,815 — Total recoveries: 995,576 — Total tested: 39,553,395 — Map.
  3. Politics: Trump wears face mask in public for first time.
  4. Public health: Fauci hasn't briefed Trump on the coronavirus pandemic in at least two months — We're losing the war on the coronavirus.
  5. States: Louisiana governor issues face mask mandate.
  6. World: India reimposes lockdowns as coronavirus cases soar.
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Biden's doctrine: Erase Trump, re-embrace the world

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto, and Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Foreign policy will look drastically different if Joe Biden defeats President Trump in November, advisers tell Axios — starting with a Day One announcement that the U.S. is re-entering the Paris Climate Agreement and new global coordination of the coronavirus response.

The big picture: If Trump's presidency started the "America First" era of withdrawal from global alliances, Biden's team says his presidency would be the opposite: a re-engagement with the world and an effort to rebuild those alliances — fast.

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Robert Mueller speaks out on Roger Stone commutation

Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller testifies before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on Capitol Hill on Wednesday July 24, 2019. Photo: The Washington Post / Contributor

Former special counsel Robert Mueller responded to claims from President Trump and his allies that Roger Stone was a "victim" in the Justice Department's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, writing in a Washington Post op-ed published Saturday: "He remains a convicted felon, and rightly so."

Why it matters: The rare public comments by Mueller come on the heels of President Trump's move to commute the sentence of his longtime associate, who was sentenced in February to 40 months in prison for crimes stemming from the Russia investigation. The controversial decision brought an abrupt end to the possibility of Stone spending time behind bars.

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