White House Defends Press Secretary Zacharia After Bar Exam Report

The White House is standing behind its new press secretary, Katie Zacharia, after the Wall Street Journal reported that she took the California bar exam after law school and did not pass it, and after a watchdog group asked the State Bar of California to investigate how she has described herself.

President Donald Trump announced Zacharia, 42, as press secretary on October 9 and described her as an attorney. She graduated from Pepperdine University law school in California in 2011, the university confirmed. A law degree is not a licence to practise law in the United States. Lawyers must pass a state bar exam and be admitted before they can practise.

The answer that started it

At her first appearance alongside the president on Tuesday, a reporter asked Zacharia in which state she had passed the bar exam. She answered: "When I moved to China."

On Wednesday evening she told the New York Times she had misheard the question over the noise of Marine One and thought she was being asked where she was after law school. She also told the Times that when she began appearing on cable news, the president of Pepperdine advised her she could call herself a lawyer, but not an attorney.

The Journal, citing a person with direct knowledge of the matter, reported she sat for the California exam around the time she was planning a wedding and a move to China with her future husband, and did not pass. CNN said it found no evidence that she has passed the bar in the states where she has lived and worked since graduating.

Work in Beijing

Zacharia moved to Beijing in the summer of 2011. Her LinkedIn profile lists her as an associate on the international practice team at Zhong Lun Law Firm from 2011 to 2013. Only Chinese citizens can be licensed to practise law in China, so foreign staff at Chinese firms advise on cross border work rather than practise Chinese law.

In a statement this week, Zacharia said: "I practiced international transaction law, with all the appropriate credentials." The statement did not name a state where she is admitted.

The complaint and the defence

On Wednesday, the watchdog group Campaign for Accountability filed a complaint with the State Bar of California. It asked the bar to investigate whether Zacharia repeatedly held herself out to the public as entitled to practise law without a licence, which California law treats as a crime.

White House communications director Steven Cheung defended her in a statement, calling her a fabulous and wonderful addition to the team and "uniquely qualified and whip smart." A White House official said she was not hired to do legal work for the president.

The dispute does not change her legal right to hold the job. No law requires a press secretary to be a lawyer. The fight is over accuracy: whether a senior official described a credential she does not hold, weeks before midterm elections in which trust in official statements is itself on the ballot.