Trump’s new press secretary says it’s unclear how much she will deal with the media | Trump administration

Donald Trump’s new White House press secretary says it’s unclear to what extent she will engage with the press or hold briefings with reporters as she faces growing questions about her legal credentials.

In a brief interview with the Guardian on Thursday, Katie Zacharia detailed the whirlwind sprint to replace her predecessor Karoline Leavitt as the US president’s chief spokesperson.

Just six days after receiving a call from the White House, Zacharia stepped behind the podium for her first briefing as press secretary, a debut that was widely criticized.

Last Wednesday, October 7, a White House official called Zacharia and asked her to travel from Los Angeles, where she lives with her family, to Washington for a meeting. (She declined to say who made the call.)

Zacharia made the trip the next day, before meeting officials on Pennsylvania Avenue on Friday. He was offered the job later that day – and he accepted.

“I went home, packed two bags, said hello to my kids, my husband and my dogs,” Zacharia said before returning to Washington on Sunday ahead of his first day on Monday.

But his first briefing, which Zacharia said he was “asked to do” on his second day on the job, was criticized as lackluster.

And she has since faced scrutiny over her alleged legal qualifications. After her first briefing Tuesday, reporters asked Zacharia to name the state in which she passed the bar exam. “When I moved to China,” she replied.

She later told The New York Times that she “misheard” the question because of the sound of Marine One on the South Lawn and thought the reporter had asked, “Where were you after law school?” However, she did not confirm to the Times whether she had passed the bar exam. According to his LinkedIn profile, after graduating from Pepperdine University Law School in 2011, Zacharia was an “associate” at the Zhong Lun Law Firm in Beijing from 2011 to 2013.

This week, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the matter, that Zacharia failed the California bar exam after earning his law degree.

The State Bar of California told the Guardian it had no record of Zacharia being licensed in the state under either her married name or her maiden name, Katie Black. Although Trump referred to Zacharia as a “lawyer,” that title is reserved for people licensed to practice law.

In another interview with the conservative newspaper Human Events on Thursday, Zacharia admitted to right-wing influencer Jack Posobiec that she had not passed the California bar. At the time, she said she was “distracted, overwhelmed and excited” about joining her new husband in China, where he worked, after being in a long-distance relationship for more than a year.

A person familiar with the matter said Zacharia is “staying away” by calling herself an attorney and that she considers the designation a “valid title” given her law degree and “experience in international transactional law.” She did so after “consulting with other legal professionals and attorneys” about whether it was an appropriate designation, the source claimed, adding that Zacharia “never gave legal advice”; just a “legal analysis”.

However, many legal experts note that “attorney” and “attorney” are often used interchangeably. On Wednesday, the Campaign for Accountability, a nonprofit watchdog organization, asked the State Bar of California to investigate whether Zacharia misled the public and potentially violated state law by describing herself as a lawyer.

After his stay in China, there is a 10-year gap on Zacharia’s LinkedIn profile. Wired reported Thursday that during that time, she worked as an “affiliate marketer” for Beachbody, a multi-level marketing company that she described to the outlet as “some kind of pyramid scheme.”

She later claims to have served as “general counsel” for Fix California, a conservative group founded by Richard Grenell, a longtime Trump ally and the president’s special envoy for special missions. The Guardian has contacted Zhong Lun and Fix California for additional details on Zacharia’s legal roles within these organizations.

Zacharia also said she “didn’t want to be seen lobbying” for the press secretary role, in her interview with conservative media outlet Human Events. Instead, she said she closely monitored Trump’s social media posts before appearing on conservative talk shows to “audition” for the job.

When Trump announced that Zacharia had been selected for the position, he described her as a “dedicated Maga fan” who has “an unblemished track record of support and has been a loyal and brilliant supporter, from the beginning.”

Asked by the Guardian why the White House offered him the position, Zacharia – who was previously an advisor to the Trump Media Group, owner of the presidential platform Truth Social, and briefly served as a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security – declined to comment.

Now White House press secretary, she also did not want to specify Thursday how often she intended to brief the press. She said it was “unknown at this time” and that Trump “is his best spokesperson, and I will interact if necessary.”

“I follow the example of the president,” Zacharia added.