Everything about Amazon is big. It’s the second-biggest retailer in the world. Its founder, Jeff Bezos, possesses the biggest fortune in the world. And the company has developed a big revolving door in Washington through which government officials and employees whisk and land in well-paying jobs at Amazon, which has a big list of interests it seeks to protect and advance in the nation’s capital.
A Mother Jones investigation has identified at least 247 US government officials and employees—with about 150 hailing from the intelligence, cybersecurity, law enforcement, and military fields—who were hired by Amazon in the past 10 years or so. About 200 of them have been retained by the fast-growing company since the start of 2017. This list is not comprehensive and represents what is likely only a portion of federal employees who left government service for Amazon. It was compiled by searching LinkedIn and locating people who, according to their profiles, had worked in the federal government directly before moving to Amazon; it relies on information provided by the platform’s users. There are no public records that track all the US officials and employees hired by Amazon or other firms.
It is not uncommon for prominent firms to vacuum up government officials who can lobby
— source motherjones.com | David Corn, Dan Spinelli | Mar 2, 2021