Katie Zacharia’s legal background is under fresh scrutiny after two people with direct knowledge said she did not pass the bar exam in the United States. The question landed days after her first White House press briefing, when the newly prominent lawyer was thrust into a role that put her credentials in public view.
The issue matters now because Zacharia has been presented as both an attorney and a lawyer. Donald Trump called her an attorney in a social media post last week announcing her role, and Zacharia later said she took the bar exam after graduating from Pepperdine University in 2011. In a Thursday interview, she said, “I'll take the bar and see what happens,” then added that the results were “somewhat inconsequential” because she knew she would be moving to China afterward.
That explanation is central to her account of how she built her career. Zacharia said she worked in international transaction law after moving to China, and she said she consulted many people in the field before deciding it was acceptable to describe herself as a lawyer rather than an attorney at law. “I never came across as someone who was an attorney at law,” she said. The White House also provided a statement from Zacharia saying she practiced international transaction law “with all the appropriate credentials.”
But the account has not silenced the questions. Popular Information reported earlier this week that there was no evidence Zacharia was licensed to practice law, and The reported that she sat for the bar in 2011 but did not pass. The White House did not respond to questions about whether she passed the bar exam, leaving her public description and the private account of people familiar with the matter in direct conflict.
What comes next is straightforward: unless the White House answers the question directly, the uncertainty around Zacharia’s license status will keep following her every time she speaks for the administration. For a press secretary, that is not a side issue. It is the first test of credibility, and it is still unresolved.
