Two former top Obama administration officials are working on behalf of Huawei, even as the Chinese telecom giant faces a Trump administration that increasingly sees it as a threat to national security.

President Trump signed an executive order Wednesday likely aimed at limiting the influence of Huawei, ZTE, and other Chinese companies the U.S. intelligence community and law enforcement officials see as threats.

But Samir Jain, Obama’s senior director for cybersecurity policy for the National Security Council, registered as a lobbyist for Huawei in March 2019, and James Cole, who was Obama’s deputy attorney general from 2011 to 2015, has represented Huawei since 2017 as an attorney with law firm Sidley.

Jain, whose personal biography notes he “represented the DOJ in White House cybersecurity meetings and international negotiations, such as China's agreement not to engage in cyber-enabled intellectual property theft for commercial gain,” is now lobbying for Huawei on topics such as “foreign investment, government purchasing, and security-related issues arising under the National Defense Authorization Act,” according to his disclosure filing.

Cole is defending Huawei against Justice Department criminal charges of bank fraud, conspiracy to defraud the U.S., conspiracy to commit money laundering, obstruction of justice, illegal actions related to dodging Iran sanctions, and more.

The Justice Department is working to disqualify Cole, who was No. 2 in the Obama Justice Department for five years, from defending Huawei for his previous experiences investigating Huawei-related matters while at the DOJ.

Trump's executive order notes that foreign adversaries are creating and exploiting vulnerabilities in information and communications technology and services to commit economic and industrial espionage, and aims to limit the acquisition and use of technology from firms that could be assisting those adversaries.

The U.S. is particularly concerned about the influence that Chinese-based companies such as Huawei could have on the cellular network technology known as 5G, which is poised to revolutionize internet speed, broadband access, and global communications. The U.S. government widely suspects that Huawei, a global leader in telecommunications and in 5G, is working hand-in-hand with the Chinese government and is giving China's surveillance state access to hardware and to networks around the world.

The Justice Department has been increasing its scrutiny of China’s activities in recent years, launching a "China Initiative" in 2018 and charging an increased number of people in China-related espionage cases, cracking down on Chinese hackers, prosecuting Chinese efforts to steal secrets, and more. The department is also seeking the extradition from Canada of Huawei’s Chief Financial Officer Wanzhou Meng, the daughter of the company's billionaire founder and who the U.S. believes was involved in the company’s criminal conspiracy.

There is bipartisan agreement about the national security threat posed by Huawei and other Chinese tech firms.