She called herself a lawyer on Fox News. Trump introduced her as “an attorney.”
No state has any record of her. Asked where she passed the bar: “when I moved to China.”
Foreigners cannot take China’s bar exam and must already be attorneys to be considered a lawyer in China. This is a major scandal.
I am an attorney. We were specifically advised not to call ourselves “lawyers” until we passed the bar.
In California, it’s actually a crime:https://t.co/mkGHJ0k2qY
— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) October 15, 2026
President Donald Trump’s new White House press secretary Katie Zacharia failed the California bar exam and has never passed one in the United States, despite repeatedly describing herself as a lawyer and being introduced by the president as an attorney.
The revelation has sparked fresh questions about the legal credentials of Trump’s latest high-profile appointment, whose professional history includes working at a prestigious Chinese law firm and serving as general counsel for a political nonprofit.
Zacharia, who graduated from Pepperdine University’s law school in 2011, sat for the California bar exam shortly afterward but failed
She was preparing for her wedding and an international move to China with her future husband at the time, according to the source.
Despite never passing an American bar examination, Zacharia went on to build a career involving international legal transactions and regularly presented herself as a lawyer during television appearances.
And when Zacharia was directly questioned by a reporter on Tuesday about which state had admitted her to the bar, her response did little to clear up the mystery.
‘When I moved to China,’ she replied, without providing any further explanation.
New WH Press Secretary Katie Zacharia has deep ties to Communist China, working in Beijing for years at Chinese law firm Zhong Lun.
Zhong Lun regularly acts as counsel for Chinese state agencies, state-owned enterprises, and cross-border transactions tied to Chinese government… pic.twitter.com/NPEzcoottK
— FactPost (@factpostnews) October 9, 2026
AC
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