New White House press secretary Katie Zacharia has defended her legal background and justified her truncated inaugural briefing as she navigates a rocky first week as the president's chief spokeswoman.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported Ms Zacharia, introduced by Donald Trump as an attorney, never passed the bar exam in the United States, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter.
Appointed by US President Donald Trump, Ms 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.
There is no evidence to suggest that the 41-year-old press secretary has ever passed the bar exam, required to obtain a license to practise law in the United States, after graduating from Pepperdine University with a law degree.
In her home state of California, it is a misdemeanour to practice law without the appropriate credentials.
When questioned Thursday, local time, by conservative media outlet Real America's Voice, Ms Zacharia said she had registered to take the bar exam but was then "distracted and overwhelmed" by plans to move to China with her husband.
"I was obviously incredibly distracted and overwhelmed and excited for finally being married to someone who I'd been long distance from for at least a year," Ms Zacharia said.
"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.
On her Linkedin page, Ms Zacharia lists experience at Zhong Lun Law Firm in Beijing, where she says she worked as an associate for nearly two years.
Ms Zacharia, who has been under scrutiny after an uncomfortable first press briefing on Tuesday, said she consulted several legal experts to ensure that title was accurate when offering legal analysis.
"It's unfortunate that people dub this as some kind of conspiracy or want to put me in a camp. The truth is, I was very careful how I executed this, and I never came across as someone who was an attorney-at-law."
She will not weigh in on legal matters in her White House capacity, Ms Zacharia said.
Zacharia's path to the White House explained
Ms Zacharia, who previously worked as a communication adviser and who runs Truth Social, said she did not want to be seen as lobbying for the position, left vacant when Karoline Leavitt announced she would depart the administration to spend more time with her family.
She said she monitored the president's social media posts to determine what was top of mind for him, then would go on air to talk about those topics.
"My philosophy is, I'm on TV enough where if he sees me and he likes me, then I will be recruited for the job," she said.
"I do not believe that lobbying for that job would have been successful, and I wanted to work for it. I wanted to audition for it."
Then on October 7, as Zacharia was preparing to take one of her children to a pumpkin patch, she received a phone call from Trump about the press secretary position.
She promptly flew out the next day from her home in California to Washington, met with the president about the job on Friday and formally accepted the position later that day.
Ms Zacharia was later celebrated in a post by Pepperdine University after news of her new position spread.
Zacharia planned to keep her first press briefing 'short'
In it, she said she did not have time to get fully prepared ahead of her first briefing on Tuesday and that it was always the plan to keep it short because President Donald Trump would field questions from journalists later that morning.
"It was absolutely my goal to keep it short, considering he is his own best spokesperson, and he would love — and does love — gaggling with the media as he goes to Marine One," Ms Zacharia said.
"So I wanted to give ample deference and not barge into his time."
The initial briefing materials were given to Ms Zacharia on Monday evening, then completed on Tuesday at 8am, less than two hours before she would appear before the White House press corps.
She had been up since 3am preparing, Ms Zacharia said.
"I never had a full briefing beforehand, and I went out and I effectuated the briefing," she said.
AP