UPDATED: White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia defended calling herself a lawyer, even though she is not licensed to be an attorney at law.
The Wall Street Journal reported that after graduating from Pepperdine Law School in 2011, Zacharia took the California bar exam but did not pass.
On Fox News’ Hannity, Zacharia confirmed that she did not pass the exam and that she did not take it a second time.
Earlier, in an appearance on Jack Posobiec’s show on Real America’s Voice, Zacharia said that “a lot of the misinformation, miscommunication” is “around the fact that I labeled myself a lawyer, and I consulted for a very long time many people in the field. ‘Is it okay and acceptable if I label myself lawyer, not attorney at law, not Katie Zacharia esquire, but lawyer, and provide legal analysis, not legal advice. And they said absolutely, across the board. You can call yourself a lawyer.’”
Since Zacharia took the post, there have been questions raised of her legal credentials, as she has talked of being a lawyer in numerous media appearances. Trump referred to her as an “attorney” in a Truth Social post announcing her selection. She also was general counsel of the advocacy group Fix California, founded by Ric Grenell.
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Hannity asked Zacharia about a CNN report that she shared 15 social media posts in which she was indentified as an “attorney.”
“I think they were retweets, and I corrected the record and said that it’s not endorsing the title. They were retweets of a title that had been given,” Zacharia answered.
On Tuesday, shortly after giving her first press briefing, Zacharia appeared with Donald Trump as he embarked on a three-day campaign swing. When a reporter asked Trump where she passed the bar exam, he turned to her and she said, “When I moved to China.” She told The New York Times that she misunderstood the question and thought it was asking for information of where she was after law school.
In the interview with Posobiec, Zacharia said that she got a job in the international practice division of a Chinese law firm. “There’s no Chinese bar,” she said. “I had enough credentials, which was my law degree, to be able to do this practice. And these were multi-million dollar agreements and transactions that were cross border, and there I had all the necessary requirements to do that.”
The Campaign for Accountability filed a complaint with the State Bar of California on Wednesday, challenging her description of herself as a lawyer and as a general counsel.
Hannity asked Zacharia, “Why not just say, ‘I went to Pepperdine Law School, and then took a different career path … Why get into this long, drawn out definition between a lawyer and an attorney, because I don’t think most people see much of a distinction?”
Zacharia said that when she moved back to the United States, she did not retake the bar, as she gave birth to four kids in six years. She said that when she went to engage in media and give legal analysis, she consulted attorneys and legal professionals as to whether she could label herself a “lawyer.” She said that she was not giving legal advice in her appearances.
On Hannity, Hannity also asked Zacharia about her first press briefing on Tuesday, when she called on just three reporters and ended the session after just 14 minutes. Hannity noted that her debut was “widely panned.”
Zacharia described the whirlwind of being offered the job last week, starting on Monday and having a press briefing on Tuesday.
“I really stepped up to the plate to do the press conference with very little prep time,” she said, adding that instead of taking questions she “probably should have” just introduced herself. She did note that she delivered breaking news that Trump had asked Kimberly Guilfoyle, the U.S. ambassador to Greece, to resign.
In her Real America’s Voice interview, Zacharia also described the scramble to prepare for Tuesday’s briefing. After calling on three reporters, she called an end to the briefing, which lasted just 14 minutes. Zacharia said that she received the briefing materials only the night before and woke up at 3 a.m. to prepare. It wasn’t until about 8 a.m., she said, that the materials were finalized. “I never had a full briefing beforehand,” she said.
She also was asked about the inevitability of a Saturday Night Live skit, and said that she would like a “Scarlett Johansson type character.” But she said that she is not watching “anything right now except what he’s doing and focusing on what the president is up to and trying to amplify that.” “I do not want to see any of the other X or Instagram or TV right now.” She will get a short reprieve, as new episodes of SNL are not scheduled for the next two weeks.
