White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia confirms 'she never passed bar exam'
Facing backlash over her legal credentials, White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia addresses controversy, admitting she never passed the bar
White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia confirmed that she did not pass the bar exam, addressing intense public scrutiny and questions regarding her legal credentials.
Zacharia graduated from the Pepperdine University Caruso School of Law in 2011, but faced questions after previously being referred to as an "attorney" or "lawyer" by President Trump and on her own social media profiles.
Addressing the outcome, Zacharia stated that she did take the California bar exam but failed to pass, attributing the distraction partly to preparing for her wedding and an impending move to China.
She maintained that she subsequently practiced international transaction law with appropriate credentials overseas.
The admission followed a formal complaint filed by the watchdog group Campaign for Accountability with the State Bar of California, asking for an investigation into whether she held herself out as a licensed attorney without a license—which state law treats very seriously.
Zacharia, who joined the White House on Monday, has previously said she practiced law before entering politics and Trump had described her as an attorney.
"You did not pass the bar exam, correct?" she was asked in an interview on Fox News' "Hannity" show late on Thursday.
"Correct,” she said in response to the host, Sean Hannity.
"I did not," she said when Hannity asked if she ever took the bar exam a second time.
On Tuesday during her first briefing, she took questions from just three reporters before ending the event in under 15 minutes.
Her performance was criticized by some media commentators and political analysts, though Trump told reporters, "I thought she was very good."
When asked about her performance by Hannity, she said: "What I feel is I really stepped up to the plate to do the press conference, Sean, with very little prep time."
Zacharia earned her law degree from Pepperdine University in 2011, according to the university. Nearly all licensed US lawyers first obtain a law degree, but law school graduates cannot legally practice law in the US without first being admitted to a state bar.
