WASHINGTON — White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia acknowledged Thursday that she never passed a bar exam, following news reports that questioned her legal credentials after she publicly referred to herself as a lawyer and was described by President Donald Trump as an attorney.
Zacharia addressed the matter in an interview with commentator Jack Posobiec after The Wall Street Journal reported that she failed the California bar exam in 2011 and never passed a bar exam in any U.S. jurisdiction. Zacharia, who earned a juris doctor degree from Pepperdine Caruso School of Law in 2011, said she was distracted at the time by plans to marry and move abroad.
“I was very careful how I executed this. I never came across as someone who was an attorney at law,” Zacharia told Posobiec, as reported by CBS News. She maintained she “didn’t think much” of the exam results and asserted that passing was not required for the international transaction work she subsequently conducted in China.
Disputed titles and ethics complaint
Controversy surrounding Zacharia’s background intensified after independent reporting from Popular Information found no record of her admission to practice law in any of the 50 U.S. states or Washington, D.C. Despite the lack of an active license, Zacharia described herself as a lawyer on her Instagram profile and made repeated television appearances using the title, according to reports.
When Trump announced her appointment on Oct. 9, he referred to her on Truth Social as an attorney and a graduate of Pepperdine Caruso School of Law. Zacharia told The New York Times that she previously consulted Pepperdine’s president regarding how to characterize her background on television, saying she was advised to avoid “attorney” or “esquire” but was told “lawyer” was acceptable.
On Wednesday, the liberal watchdog organization Campaign for Accountability submitted a formal complaint to the State Bar of California, urging an investigation into whether Zacharia breached state statutes. Under the California Business and Professions Code, individuals who falsely advertise or present themselves as practicing or entitled to practice law without an active license commit a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
“California law is crystal clear: You can’t hold yourself out as a lawyer unless you’re authorized to practice law,” Nora Freeman Engstrom, a law professor at Stanford Law School, told CBS News. “And the law doesn’t just prohibit the unauthorized practice of law. It also prohibits the unauthorized pretense of being a lawyer.”
Work history and White House response
Questions regarding her credentials gained public attention earlier this week following her first official press briefing. When a reporter on the White House South Lawn asked where she had passed the bar, Zacharia responded, “I went to China.” She later told The New York Times that she misheard the question and meant that she moved abroad after completing law school.
Zacharia lived in Beijing between 2011 and 2013 and worked at the Zhong Lun Law Firm. While Zacharia told news outlets she practiced international transaction law with appropriate credentials, legal experts pointed out that foreign citizens cannot take the Chinese bar exam or practice Chinese domestic law. Sida Liu, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong, told The New York Times that foreign nationals at such firms handle international transactions in roles similar to paid internships.
The White House defended Zacharia’s qualifications for the press secretary role, which does not legally require a law license. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung dismissed the Campaign for Accountability’s complaint in a statement on X, calling the watchdog a radical partisan group.
The State Bar of California has not announced whether it will open a formal investigation into the complaint.
