White House's Katie Zacharia confirms she never passed bar exam

Washington — White House press secretary Katie Zacharia said Thursday that she never passed the bar, although she's called herself a lawyer and President Trump has referred to her as an attorney.

Zacharia made the comment in an interview with conservative commentator Jack Posobiec after the Wall Street Journal  reported that she failed the bar exam in California in 2011 and did not pass the bar in any other U.S. state in which she's lived. Zacharia graduated from Pepperdine University's law school.

Zacharia told Posobiec she took the bar exam in California but didn't pass, saying she was distracted by her plans to get married and move to China for her husband's work around the same time. She said she "didn't think much" of the results, and said she didn't need to pass the exam to do her work in China. 

Zacharia also said she never described herself as an "attorney at law," and said there's a "lot of misinformation around the fact that I labeled myself a lawyer." She said she consulted with multiple experts. 

"I was very careful how I executed this. I never came across as someone who was an attorney at law," Zacharia said. 

Earlier this week, as President Trump was departing for a trip to Alaska, when reporters asked her where she had passed the bar exam, Zacharia responded, "I went to China," sparking confusion about her law background. 

A White House official said Zacharia earned her juris doctor from Pepperdine, which the university confirmed to CBS News. The White House official said Zacharia then moved to China with her husband for his job at an American private equity firm, while she worked on international transaction law. 

Zacharia told CBS News in a statement Thursday she "practiced international transaction law, with all the appropriate credentials," although it's not clear which credentials she meant. Only Chinese nationals may take the bar exam in China. 

On Fox News in April, Zacharia said she "lived in Beijing as a corporate lawyer for three years."

Zacharia's Instagram bio also says that she is a lawyer. On Truth Social, Mr. Trump called her "a distinguished Graduate of Pepperdine University, and the Pepperdine Caruso School of Law, an attorney."

But whether it's true that she can say she's an attorney or lawyer is being disputed — and it's a question Zacharia has considered. She told The New York Times that as she was beginning to appear on cable news, she talked with Pepperdine's president about how she could describe herself. The Times said, "She said she was warned not to use the words 'attorney" or 'esquire,' but that 'lawyer' was OK."

The White House said Zacharia is "uniquely qualified" for the White House press secretary role. 

"Katie is a fabulous and wonderful addition to the team," White House communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement to CBS News. "She is uniquely qualified and whip smart to help inform the American people about all the great things President Trump and his Administration have been doing, and she will do an incredible job as Press Secretary."

On Wednesday, the Campaign for Accountability, a liberal nonprofit watchdog, filed a complaint with the State Bar of California, questioning whether she had violated California law in referring to herself as a lawyer without having passed the bar. She had been living in California with her family until she became White House press secretary. 

The Campaign for Accountability pointed to California Business and Professions Code Section 6126, which says, "Any person advertising or holding himself or herself out as practicing or entitled to practice law or otherwise practicing law who is not an active licensee of the State Bar, or otherwise authorized pursuant to statute or court rule to practice law in this state at the time of doing so, is guilty of a misdemeanor." 

"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," Campaign for Accountability executive director Michelle Kuppersmith said in a statement. "In California, calling yourself a lawyer without a license isn't puffery; it's a crime. The State Bar should investigate whether Ms. Zacharia has misled the public about her credentials and hold her accountable if she has."

Cheung blasted the left-leaning ethics group.

"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 to X. "Nobody takes them seriously because they are deranged low lifes."

Nora Freeman Engstron, a law professor at Stanford Law School, said the language in California's law isn't ambiguous or unclear. 

"California law is crystal clear: You can't hold yourself out as a lawyer unless you're authorized to practice law," she told CBS News. "And the law doesn't just prohibit the unauthorized practice of law. It also prohibits the unauthorized pretense of being a lawyer."

"California law doesn't just prohibit people from practicing law without a license," she added. "It also prohibits them from pretending they're entitled to practice law. You don't have to set foot in a courtroom or represent a single client to run afoul of the statute."