President Donald Trump is heavily focused on dismantling what he regards as a so-called “deep state” of government agencies that work for their own partisan agendas. This concern is especially important when it comes to the intelligence and security agencies, where if malfeasance occurs, it undermines our democratic society.

However, if Trump wants to take on the deep state, why is he taking one of its most successful challengers off the field? Namely, Mark Zaid. A longtime national security attorney based in Washington, Zaid has held a high-level Top Secret-SCI government security clearance for more than 20 years. This clearance has allowed Zaid to represent members of the intelligence community whose concerns relate to highly classified information.