White House press secretary Katie Zacharia did not pass the California bar exam when she took it after graduating from law school, according to a senior administration official.
The official argued that Zacharia could technically be considered a “lawyer,” though not an attorney. President Donald Trump referred to Zacharia as an “attorney” in his Truth Social post announcing that he was tapping her as press secretary.
But several lawyers told NBC News that “lawyer” is widely understood to refer to someone who has passed the bar exam and is licensed to practice law.
Zacharia’s failure to pass the bar exam was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. The new White House press secretary is facing questions about her legal credentials after the White House has not said whether Zacharia, who has repeatedly referred to herself as a lawyer, passed the bar exam.
NBC News has not found evidence that she is licensed to practice law in any state. Zacharia, who graduated from Pepperdine Law, has said that she practiced law in China. Legal experts told NBC News that only Chinese citizens can sit for the Chinese bar exam. One expert told NBC News that Zacharia could have consulted on cross-border legal issues.
The State Bar of California and the D.C. Bar didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on whether Zacharia could be considered a “lawyer.” Zacharia lived in California but said she would move to Washington, D.C., for her new job.
The New York Times previously reported that Zacharia said in an interview that before she began appearing in cable news interviews, she discussed with Pepperdine’s president how to identify herself. Zacharia told The New York Times that she was told it was OK to use “lawyer,” but not “attorney” or “esquire.” Pepperdine didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Wednesday, representatives from the Democracy Defenders Fund, which frequently opposes the Trump administration, asked California Attorney General Rob Bonta and George Cardona, the chief trial attorney at the State Bar of California, to investigate whether Zacharia “engaged in the unauthorized practice of law.” Cardona’s office investigates potential lawyer misconduct.
“Falsely holding oneself out as a lawyer is a criminal offense, punishable by fine or incarceration of up to a year in jail,” the letter said.
The signatories of the letter included Norm Eisen, co-founder of the Democracy Defenders Fund, as well as Richard Painter, who served as President George W. Bush’s ethics lawyer. Painter, now a law professor at the University of Minnesota, has been a critic of Trump. Painter does not work at the Democracy Defenders Fund.
The California Attorney General’s Office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.
A spokesperson for the State Bar of California told NBC News that the bar “cannot confirm whether it has received any complaint or is conducting any investigation,” citing confidentiality requirements.
Reached for comment, the White House referred to a post from White House communications director Steven Cheung, who criticized a different group that asked the State Bar of California to investigate Zacharia. In that post, Cheung referred to the watchdog group Campaign for Accountability as “a radical leftist-organization run by rabid numbskulls suffering from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Cheung also said in a statement that Zacharia “is a fabulous and wonderful addition to the team.”
“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,” he said.
The White House also referred to a prior statement from Zacharia in which she said she “practiced international transaction law, with all the appropriate credentials.”
A spokesperson for the State Bar of California previously told NBC News that the state does not have records of Zacharia having been licensed to practice law in the state. The spokesperson said that she never “appeared on a California bar exam pass list,” but declined to say whether she had ever sat for the bar exam, citing confidentiality requirements.