White House press secretary confirms she did not pass bar exam

White House press secretary Katie Zacharia confirmed Thursday that she did not pass the California bar exam, raising questions about her repeated descriptions of herself as a lawyer and President Donald Trump’s description of her as an attorney.

Zacharia, a graduate of Pepperdine University’s law school, said she took the exam in 2011 but was distracted by plans to marry and move to China for her husband’s work. She said she “didn’t think much” of the result and did not need to pass the exam for her work in China. The Wall Street Journal first reported that she had failed the California exam and had not passed the bar in any other U.S. state where she had lived.

“I was very careful how I executed this. I never came across as someone who was an attorney at law,” Zacharia said in a Thursday interview. She said she had consulted experts about calling herself a lawyer rather than an attorney or “esquire,” and about providing legal analysis rather than legal advice. She said they told her that was acceptable.

Zacharia’s Instagram biography calls her a lawyer. In an April Fox News appearance, she said she had lived in Beijing “as a corporate lawyer for three years.” Trump called her “an attorney” in a Truth Social post announcing her appointment. Zacharia told CBS News that she “practiced international transaction law, with all the appropriate credentials.” CBS News said it was unclear which credentials she meant.

A White House official said Zacharia moved to China with her husband after earning her law degree and worked on international transaction law there. Only Chinese nationals may take China’s bar exam, according to CBS News. A legal expert told NBC News that Zacharia could have consulted on cross-border legal issues.

Zacharia previously told The New York Times that she discussed how to describe herself with Pepperdine’s president before appearing on cable news. She said she was warned against using “attorney” or “esquire” but told that “lawyer” was acceptable. A senior administration official likewise told NBC News she could technically be considered a lawyer, though not an attorney. Several lawyers told NBC News that “lawyer” is widely understood to mean someone licensed to practice law.

The dispute has prompted separate requests for scrutiny in California, where Zacharia lived before taking the White House job. On Wednesday, the Campaign for Accountability filed a complaint with the State Bar of California questioning whether her descriptions of herself violated state law. The group cited a provision making it a misdemeanor for someone who is not licensed or otherwise authorized to practice law to hold themselves out as entitled to do so.

Also Wednesday, representatives of the Democracy Defenders Fund asked California Attorney General Rob Bonta and a State Bar official to investigate whether Zacharia had engaged in the unauthorized practice of law, NBC News reported. The State Bar told NBC News it could not confirm whether it had received a complaint or was investigating, citing confidentiality rules. It previously said it had no record of Zacharia being licensed in California or appearing on a bar exam pass list.

Stanford law professor Nora Freeman Engstrom told CBS News that California law prohibits both practicing without a license and pretending to be entitled to practice. White House communications director Steven Cheung called Zacharia “uniquely qualified” for her job and denounced the Campaign for Accountability’s complaint as politically motivated.