Katie Zacharia Faces Scrutiny Over Credentials and Briefing

Katie Zacharia, newly appointed White House press secretary to President Donald Trump, has defended both her legal background and her brief, reportedly uncomfortable first press briefing. The Wall Street Journal reported that Zacharia, whom Trump introduced as an attorney, had not passed the U.S. bar exam. Zacharia acknowledged that she registered to take the exam but said plans to move to China with her husband distracted her, and that she believed passing it would not matter because she would not need a U.S. bar license there. She graduated from Pepperdine University with a law degree and lists work at Beijing’s Zhong Lun Law Firm on LinkedIn. The article notes there is no evidence she passed the bar and that practicing law without the required credentials is a misdemeanor in California. Zacharia said she consulted legal experts before describing her past work and argued she had not presented herself as an attorney-at-law. She said she would not offer legal opinions in her White House role. Zacharia also explained how she came to the position, which became vacant after Karoline Leavitt announced she was leaving the administration to spend more time with her family. Zacharia previously worked as a communications adviser and ran Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social. She said she tried to attract Trump’s attention by discussing topics from his posts on television rather than lobbying for the job. Trump contacted her on October 7, and she flew from California to Washington the next day, met with him on Friday and accepted the position. Addressing her first briefing, Zacharia said she intended to keep it short because Trump would speak with journalists afterward and was, in her words, his “own best spokesperson.” She said she received initial briefing materials Monday evening, finished them Tuesday morning less than two hours before the event, and had been preparing since 3am. The article presents her explanations alongside the scrutiny of her credentials and the difficult first appearance.

White House press secretary Katie Zacharia acknowledged that she did not pass the California bar exam, describing the result as “somewhat inconsequential” because she expected to move to China and did not believe she would need a US bar admission there. In an interview with conservative outlet Real America’s Voice, she said she took the exam despite being distracted by preparations to marry and relocate, then paid little attention to the result after leaving the United States. Zacharia’s credentials have come under scrutiny after President Donald Trump described her as “an attorney” when announcing her appointment. The Wall Street Journal reported that she had failed California’s bar exam before moving to China. Zacharia has said that while there, she practiced international transaction law with appropriate credentials. She also said legal professionals advised her that she could call herself a lawyer and offer legal analysis, provided she did not present herself as an “attorney at law” or give legal advice. She cited her Juris Doctor degree and transactional-law experience as supporting that distinction. Zacharia earned her JD from Pepperdine Law School in 2011. The White House defended her appointment, with communications director Steven Cheung calling her “uniquely qualified” and praising her ability to inform the public about the administration. However, the White House did not directly address her status as a lawyer in response to the Journal report. The American Bar Association says law school graduates in the United States may not practise law or present themselves as attorneys until they pass a bar exam and are admitted to a state bar. Zacharia had shared Trump’s appointment announcement, which called her an attorney.

China’s foreign ministry has responded to a remark by new White House press secretary Katie Zacharia, who said she once questioned how China could be viewed as a country poised to overtake the United States when it did not have “proper toilets.” Speaking to conservative commentator Jack Posobiec, Zacharia recalled returning from China and hearing predictions that China was on the horizon while the United States’ “golden days” were over. Her comments referred to perceptions in 2016 that China might soon surpass the US, at a time when many expected Hillary Clinton to win the presidential election. Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning replied, “We welcome her to visit China more often when she has the opportunity,” according to the South China Morning Post. Zacharia lived in China after marrying a man whose work took him there. From 2011 to 2013, she worked as an associate at Beijing’s Zhong Lun Law Firm, one of the country’s largest firms. The article notes that foreign nationals may be employed by Chinese law firms but only Chinese citizens can be licensed as lawyers in China. The story also addresses questions about Zacharia’s professional credentials. She has said she did not pass the California bar exam on her first attempt in 2011 and did not take it again because she did not plan to practise law. She described her work as that of an adviser, which did not require passing the exam, and said she never called herself an attorney. She explained that she used the term “lawyer” after professionals advised her it was acceptable. Zacharia may travel to China again as soon as the following month, when President Donald Trump is expected to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen.

Katie Zacharia, identified in the article as the new White House press secretary, has acknowledged that she failed the California bar exam on her first attempt in 2011 and never retook it. Speaking to Fox News host Sean Hannity, she explained that she had graduated from Pepperdine Law School, married that same week, and planned to move to China with her husband. She sat the exam despite expecting to leave the country, but said the result did not affect her plans. Zacharia said she consulted attorneys and other legal professionals about describing herself as a lawyer, arguing that she held a Juris Doctor degree and had substantive legal experience. She distinguished the term “lawyer” from “attorney,” saying she had been told she could use the former but not the latter, while acknowledging that some social media posts had called her an attorney. She said she did not pursue the bar exam again because she did not plan to practise law and had four children. She also said her advisory work at a Chinese law firm did not require bar admission. The article additionally recounts Zacharia’s defense of her first press conference. She said she had been in the job for fewer than eight hours and received briefing materials that morning, leaving little time to prepare. Responding to criticism that she took questions only from conservative media, she challenged that account, citing the Daily Mail as an outlet not known for being conservative or friendly to conservatives. Zacharia also defended her decision to announce breaking news during the briefing: that the Trump administration had asked Kimberly Guilfoyle to resign as ambassador to Greece.