White House defends press secretary as legal credentials face scrutiny

The White House is defending new press secretary Katie Zacharia after a watchdog group asked California’s legal regulator to investigate whether she has repeatedly presented herself as a lawyer without a licence.

President Donald Trump described Zacharia as an attorney when announcing her appointment last week. Zacharia, 42, has also called herself a lawyer. But when a reporter asked her on Tuesday where she had passed the bar exam, she replied, “When I moved to China.”

Campaign for Accountability filed a complaint with the State Bar of California on Wednesday, seeking an investigation into whether Zacharia “repeatedly held herself out to the public as entitled to practise law without a licence to do so, conduct California law treats as a crime”. The complaint does not establish that she broke the law.

“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,” Michelle Kuppersmith, the group’s head, said in a statement reported by Al Jazeera. “Yet it seems it was all a lie.”

White House communications director Steven Cheung said Zacharia is “uniquely qualified and whip smart to help inform the American people”. Responding to questions about her credentials, Zacharia said in a statement reported by the BBC: “I practised international transaction law, with all the appropriate credentials.”

Pepperdine University confirmed that Zacharia graduated from its law school in California in 2011. A law degree does not, by itself, authorise someone to practise law in the United States. Zacharia does not appear to be registered with the bar in any state where she has lived, according to the BBC.

The Wall Street Journal reported that she took California’s bar exam after graduation but did not pass. Zacharia told The New York Times that, when she first began appearing on cable news, she asked Pepperdine how to describe herself and was advised by the university president that she could call herself a lawyer, but not an attorney.

Zacharia moved to Beijing because of her husband’s job at an American private equity firm. Her LinkedIn profile lists her as an associate at Zhong Lun Law Firm there from 2011 to 2013. She has said she worked on international transaction law in China. Only Chinese citizens are eligible to obtain a licence to practise law there, though foreign employees can work at law firms in other roles, the BBC reported.

Zacharia said on a conservative radio programme last year that she had worked as outside counsel for the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank while in China. The BBC said it had contacted both organisations for comment. Her LinkedIn profile also lists a later role as general counsel for Fix California, a conservative nonprofit started by Trump ally Ric Grenell.

Zacharia began her term as press secretary on Tuesday, according to Al Jazeera. Her first briefing lasted less than 15 minutes, and she later joined Trump outside the White House, where the question about the bar exam arose.