White House press secretary Katie Zacharia says she never passed a bar exam
Zacharia confirmed she failed the California bar exam and has not been licensed to practice law, while the White House defended her qualifications for the press secretary role.
White House press secretary Katie Zacharia told conservative commentator Jack Posobiec that she took the California bar exam in 2011 but did not pass, saying personal plans at the time distracted her. She said she never described herself as an "attorney at law" and that there is "a lot of misinformation" about her self-identification as a lawyer.
A White House official confirmed Zacharia earned a juris doctor from Pepperdine University and later moved to China with her husband, working on international transaction law, though the specific credentials she relied on were not detailed. Zacharia’s Instagram bio and past social-media posts have referred to her as a lawyer, and President Trump has called her an attorney on Truth Social.
The Campaign for Accountability, a nonprofit watchdog, filed a complaint with the State Bar of California alleging that Zacharia may have violated California Business and Professions Code Section 6126 by presenting herself as a lawyer without a license. The group’s executive director, Michelle Kuppersmith, said the misrepresentation could be a misdemeanor. White House communications director Steven Cheung defended Zacharia, calling her "uniquely qualified" and praising her for informing the public about President Trump and his Administration.
Stanford Law School professor Nora Freeman Engstron said California law clearly prohibits anyone from holding themselves out as a lawyer without proper authorization, regardless of whether they actually practice law.
"I was very careful how I executed this. I never came across as someone who was an attorney at law," Zacharia said.
"Ms. Zacharia has represented herself as a lawyer repeatedly to buttress her reputation and credibility as a television legal commentator and now as the White House spokesperson, yet it seems it was all a lie," Kuppersmith said.
"This group that filed the 'complaint' is a radical leftist-organization run by rabid numbskulls suffering from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome," Cheung posted on X.
The dispute centers on whether Zacharia’s self-identification as a lawyer constitutes unlawful misrepresentation under California law.