New White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia has confirmed that she failed the California bar examination and never retook it, following days of scrutiny over her previous descriptions of herself as a lawyer and President Donald Trump’s reference to her as an attorney.
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Zacharia made the admission on Thursday during an appearance on Fox News’ Hannity, when host Sean Hannity questioned her directly about her legal qualifications.
“You went to Pepperdine Law School but you did not pass the bar exam, correct?” Hannity asked.
“Correct,” Zacharia replied.
Asked whether she subsequently sat for the examination a second or third time, she responded: “No, I did not.”
Zacharia, 41, graduated from Pepperdine University’s law school in 2011. She took the California bar examination that year but did not pass. Available reporting indicates that she has not been admitted to practise law in any U.S. jurisdiction.
The disclosure followed questions about Zacharia’s professional background after she had previously described herself as a lawyer in media appearances and had been identified as an attorney in public references, including by Trump when he announced her appointment.
She had also served in a role described as general counsel for Fix California, a conservative organisation, further fuelling questions over the nature of her legal credentials.
Explaining why she did not retake the bar examination, Zacharia said she had graduated from Pepperdine, married around the same period and was preparing to relocate to China with her husband.
“I graduated Pepperdine, got married in the same week, and we had all intent to move out to China,” she told Hannity.
She said she had already registered for the bar examination but knew during the summer that she would soon be living in China.
“I knew I would be living in China and the results of the bar were inconsequential,” she said, explaining that she still sat for the examination because she did not want a withdrawal status.
In a separate interview with Real America’s Voice, Zacharia similarly described the examination result as “somewhat inconsequential” because she believed she would not need a U.S. bar admission while living in China.
She has said that after moving abroad, she worked on international transactional legal matters. Reporting on her background indicates that she worked with the international practice team at Zhong Lun Law Firm in Beijing.
The controversy centres not on whether Zacharia obtained a law degree—she did—but on whether her previous use of terms such as “lawyer” and roles carrying legal titles accurately reflected her professional licensing status in the United States.
Zacharia has defended her descriptions of her background, saying she had consulted others who told her that holding a Juris Doctor degree and having international legal experience permitted her to describe herself as a lawyer. She has, however, acknowledged that she is not a licensed U.S. attorney.
The matter has also attracted formal complaints. Campaign for Accountability said it filed a complaint with the State Bar of California on October 14 asking it to investigate whether Zacharia improperly held herself out as a lawyer despite not being admitted to practise in California or another U.S. jurisdiction. The filing is a request for investigation and does not itself establish wrongdoing.
Another watchdog group, Democracy Defenders Fund, has also sought scrutiny of her legal credentials. The complaints focus partly on her media appearances and her previous general counsel role.
Zacharia became the 37th White House Press Secretary this month, succeeding Karoline Leavitt, who stepped down in August to devote more time to her young family. The White House formally presented Zacharia in the role this week.
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