Trump’s new press secretary faces scrutiny because he claims to be a lawyer | US News

Donald Trump’s new press secretary, Katie Zacharia, has repeatedly described herself as a lawyer. But when asked after her inaugural press briefing Tuesday to name the state where she passed the bar exam, she responded curiously: “When I moved to China.”

No public records show she was ever licensed to practice law in the U.S. states where she resided, and her response to reporters’ questions Tuesday only deepened the scrutiny.

Zacharia was not registered in 38 states, as well as Washington DC and the Virgin Islands, where the state’s list of attorneys was publicly available, according to a Guardian review. On Wednesday evening, the Wall Street Journal, citing a person with direct knowledge of the matter, reported that Zacharia took the California bar exam after graduating from Pepperdine University Law School in 2011, but did not pass.

Speaking briefly to The New York Times, she did not say whether or not she had passed the bar exam, but told the reporter that she had consulted with Pepperdine’s president about how she should identify herself on television. According to the Times, she said she was told to stay away from the term “attorney” or “squire,” but that the term “attorney” was appropriate.

After his shaky and widely criticized first briefing, a reporter asked Trump in which state Zacharia had passed the bar exam. The president, who had described Zacharia as a lawyer when announcing his nomination, turned to her and asked, “In what state?” She replied, “When I moved to China.” Zacharia told The New York Times that she misheard the question amid the sound of Marine One and thought she had been asked, “Where were you after law school?”

Zacharia’s law degree is real — Pepperdine University confirmed she graduated from its law school — but a diploma is not a bachelor’s degree. No records have surfaced to prove she was admitted to practice, according to the Popular Information report.

In a subsequent press statement, Zacharia said she had “practiced international transactions law, with all appropriate qualifications.” The White House did not say whether she passed a bar exam anywhere.

Zacharia’s LinkedIn profile lists her as “general counsel” of Fix California, a conservative group founded by Ric Grenell, a longtime Trump ally and the president’s special envoy for special missions. Zacharia lived in California, but the California State Bar said there was no record of her being licensed in the state.

“The State Bar of California has no record of Kate Sharon Zacharia or Kate Sharon Black (or Katie in either case) having been licensed to practice law in California,” a spokesperson for the State Bar of California said in a statement. Black is her maiden name.

“Due to privacy laws, the State Bar can only confirm whether an individual has passed the bar exam, not whether they have taken the bar exam,” it adds.

There are no reports indicating that Zacharia has been charged or committed any offense.

Campaign for Accountability, a nonprofit watchdog organization, filed a complaint with the State Bar of California on Wednesday, asking it to investigate whether Zacharia misled the public — and potentially violated state law — by describing herself as an attorney.

“In California, calling yourself an unlicensed lawyer is not a joke; it is a crime,” Michelle Kuppersmith, the group’s executive director, said in a statement.

California law states that any person “advertising or holding himself out as practicing or having the right to practice law” who is not an active member of the state bar could be punished with a fine of up to $1,000 and up to a year in prison.

“There’s a difference between having a JD and being a lawyer, you get a law license by saying you’ve been admitted to the bar,” said Richard Painter, a law professor at the University of Minnesota and former chief ethics counsel at the White House during the George W. Bush administration. “Calling yourself a lawyer…that’s at least a crime.”

Zacharia’s LinkedIn notes that she was remote while working at Fix California. But Painter said that was “irrelevant – you have to be a member of the bar”.

The profile also states that she worked as an associate at the Beijing firm Zhong Lun from 2011 to 2013. Only Chinese citizens can be licensed as lawyers in China, according to the Chinese law and legal affairs website China Justice Observer, although foreign staff can work at Chinese firms in other capacities.

The Washington Post, CNN and independent newsletter Popular Information also found no sign of admission elsewhere, including in Texas and Washington DC, where Popular Information said it had worked. The Post found no active or expired admissions under either name.

California Governor Gavin Newsom’s press office mocked the exchange on X, asking whether the new press secretary “appears to be a Chinese lawyer.” Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, described his performance at the briefing as “tremendous” and “commanding.”

Zacharia was relatively unknown when Trump announced his selection to be his next press secretary last week, following the departure of Karoline Leavitt earlier this year. Since then, several media outlets have uncovered a series of since-deleted social media posts that promote a debunked or baseless conspiracy.

In a series of now-deleted social media posts about X reviewed by the Guardian, Zacharia fashioned about Tesla and Space X founder Elon Musk.

On May 22, 2022, the new press secretary referred to Musk, a tech billionaire and Trump ally, as “based.” She went on to explain that the term was applied “when you want to recognize someone as being themselves” and “brave and unique or not caring what other people think.”

In another post from the same year, Zacharia also responded to a user sharing a widely circulated photo of Musk and Ghislaine Maxwell, the co-conspirator of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, at the 2014 Vanity Fair Oscars party, where Zacharia wrote “oh please he already responded to this #oldnews”.

Musk has not been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein and has denied knowing Maxwell, saying the photo that shows her standing near him is because she “photobombed” him.

In other now-deleted posts, also from the same period, Zacharia directed various laudatory messages from Musk. “#IstandwithElon,” she wrote in one. In another, she congratulated him for renouncing his support for the Democratic Party and declaring that he would henceforth support the Republicans. “The smartest, richest man in the world here is saying out loud what everyone is thinking,” Zacharia wrote.

However, last year, Zacharia questioned whether Musk could have been trusted “from the beginning” when he appeared as a guest on conservative commentator Buck Sexton’s podcast.

“He is heavily invested in China. At first, a lot of people questioned his allegiance. Where is his allegiance completely?” she asked on the show. In late 2025, Musk and Trump sparked a public feud over the president’s sweeping domestic policy legislation. They have since reconciled, and Musk, according to the New York Times, is spending record sums to help Republicans maintain control of this cycle’s midterm elections.

The Bulwark previously reported on Zacharia’s since-deleted posts, in which she called on the administration to “suspend habeas corpus” — the constitutional right to challenge detention before a judge.

Meanwhile, CNN also discovered now-deleted social media posts in which Zacharia wrote and shared comments accusing prominent politicians and Hollywood elites of pedophilia. This includes longtime Democratic activist John Podesta — who was a notable target of the debunked Pizzagate conspiracy — who claimed that several prominent Democrats were part of a child sex trafficking ring.