Katie Zacharia, the newly appointed press secretary for Donald Trump, has broken her silence on questions surrounding her legal credentials. She admitted she never passed the California bar exam and gave an unusual explanation during her first interview since taking the White House role.
Katie Zacharia gives a reason why she never passed the bar exam
Zacharia told Real America’s Voice that her long-distance relationship with her husband Tyler caused her to fail. Tyler was working for a private equity firm in Beijing while she finished law school at Pepperdine University in California. “I was obviously incredibly distracted and overwhelmed and excited for finally being married to someone who had been long-distance from for at least a year and a half, when you include the engagement,” she said.
The Wall Street Journal reported hours before the interview that Katie Zacharia sat for the California bar exam in 2011 but did not pass. She said she had already registered and did not want to withdraw. “And we just said, ‘Let’s take this time and I’ll take the bar and see what happens,'” she recalled. “The results are somewhat inconsequential because I knew I wouldn’t need the bar in China.”
Zacharia moved to China in 2011 and stayed until 2013. She worked at the law firm Zhong Lun as an associate on the international practice team, according to her LinkedIn page. She defended calling herself a lawyer despite never passing the bar. The press secretary said she consulted many people in the legal field who told her the label was acceptable given her law degree and international experience. “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 said.
Donald Trump himself described her as “an attorney” when he announced her appointment on Truth Social. Journalist Judd Legum later found no evidence she passed the bar or was admitted to practice in any state. The Campaign for Accountability has asked the State Bar of California to investigate whether Zacharia violated laws against unlicensed legal practice.
