Katie Zacharia: New Press Secretary’s Lawyer Claim Questioned
The katie zacharia story took a sharp turn Wednesday as the new White House press secretary’s claim to be a lawyer came under scrutiny, with a watchdog group filing a complaint with the State Bar of California asking it to investigate whether she presented herself as an attorney without a license.
Campaign for Accountability said Zacharia had repeatedly described herself as a lawyer during television appearances and had listed herself as general counsel of a California-based conservative nonprofit. The group’s executive director, Michelle Kuppersmith, said Zacharia “has represented herself as a lawyer repeatedly to buttress her reputation and credibility,” and asked the state bar to investigate whether she misled the public. In California, presenting oneself as a lawyer without a license is a crime.
Trump had described Zacharia as “an attorney” when announcing her appointment on Friday. But journalists have found no record of her being licensed to practice law in any U.S. state, and California’s bar confirmed to U.S. media that it has no record of her holding a license under either her married or maiden name.
A Halting Debut at the Podium
The questions mounted after Zacharia’s first briefing on Tuesday, a debut that faltered as she read from a prepared statement, took only a handful of questions, and spoke haltingly at times. When reporters asked where she had passed the bar exam, she replied: “When I moved to China.”
The answer appeared to reference a three-year stint she says she spent working at a law firm in Beijing, where a pro-Trump women’s group’s biography says she served as outside counsel to the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation. Foreign nationals cannot sit China’s bar exam, though they can do certain legal work at Chinese firms.
Zacharia, 41, graduated from Pepperdine University’s law school in 2011 — but a law degree does not by itself authorize someone to practice law. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that she took the California bar exam around the time she was planning her move to China and failed it, citing a person with direct knowledge of the matter.
In a statement to AFP, Zacharia said she had “practiced international transaction law, with all the appropriate credentials,” without clarifying whether she holds any U.S. law license.
From Leavitt to Zacharia
Zacharia succeeds Karoline Leavitt, who stepped down as press secretary earlier this year after the birth of her second child. Before joining the White House, Zacharia was a regular pundit on conservative television and worked as a communications adviser for Trump Media & Technology Group, which operates Trump’s Truth Social platform.
She inherits the podium at a tense moment for White House-press relations, following the attempted expulsion of CNN, Politico and MS Now from briefings.
Source: PBS / The Times