Washington: New White House press secretary Katie Zacharia, under scrutiny over her legal credentials, seemed to acknowledge Thursday that she had failed the bar exam, but argued she was accurate in presenting herself as a lawyer.
Appointed by US President Donald Trump, Zacharia has described herself as a lawyer during television appearances and on social media, and listed herself as general counsel of a California-based conservative nonprofit.
But there is no evidence to suggest that the 41-year-old press secretary has ever passed the bar exam, required to obtain a licence to practice law in the United States, after graduating from Pepperdine University with a law degree.
When questioned Thursday by conservative media outlet Real America’s Voice, Zacharia said she had registered to take the bar exam but was then “distracted and overwhelmed” by plans to move with her husband to China.
“We just said, ‘Let’s take this time, and I’ll take the bar and see what happens.’ The results are somewhat inconsequential because I knew I wouldn’t need the bar in China, and we left shortly thereafter,” she said.
In Beijing, Zacharia worked as a lawyer at a major Chinese law firm.
She explained that she didn’t retake the bar exam upon returning to the United States due to the birth of her first child.
Zacharia said that “many people in the field” had assured her that she could “label myself a lawyer, not attorney at law...and provide legal analysis, not legal advice,” given her law degree and experience in business law gained in China.
“I was very careful how I executed this,” she said.
The Campaign for Accountability, a political ethics organization, on Wednesday called for the California Bar Association to launch an investigation.
“In California, calling yourself a lawyer without a licence isn’t puffery; it’s a crime,” the organisation stated in a press release.
Zacharia held her first White House press briefing on Tuesday with an unusually short press conference where she answered questions from three journalists.
She succeeded Karoline Leavitt, a loyal Trump supporter and often combative press secretary, who stepped down in August to care for her young children.