New White House press secretary Katie Zacharia has called herself a lawyer for years, but no bar record in any state shows she is licensed to practice law, and a watchdog group asked California’s State Bar on Wednesday to investigate.
Zacharia, who was named successor to Karoline Leavitt this month, was labeled a lawyer on screen at least 18 times on Fox News since March 2025, according to journalist Judd Legum. He searched bar records in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., and found no record that she was ever admitted to practice. President Donald Trump’s Truth Social post announcing her hire called her “an attorney.”
After her first briefing Tuesday, reporters asked Trump where Zacharia passed the bar, and he stepped aside to let her answer. She said, “When I moved to China,” and the AP reported it was unclear whether she finished the sentence. She later told the New York Times in a phone interview that she had misheard the question and thought it was “where were you after law school?”
This was after it had been widely reported that China restricts its national legal qualification exam to its own citizens. The White House answered questions about her credentials by sending a written statement attributed to her. It said her legal work covered international transactions and that she holds the proper credentials.
Neither Zacharia nor the White House has shown proof that she passed a bar anywhere. But she does hold a law degree. She earned a bachelor’s from Pepperdine University in 2007 and a J.D. in 2011 from Pepperdine’s Caruso School of Law, according to the school. But a law degree is not a license, and a person counts as a lawyer only after being admitted to practice.
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Each state has its own rules for admission. In California, where the complaint was filed, applicants must finish their legal education, pass the California Bar Examination, and clear a character review run by the Committee of Bar Examiners. That review takes at least six months and sometimes more than a year. Applicants must also pass the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination, a 60-question ethics test, with a scaled score of at least 86.
Many other states use the Uniform Bar Examination, which combines a multiple-choice test worth 50% of the score, essays worth 30% and two performance tasks worth 20%. Totals are scored out of 400 points and transfer among the 35 jurisdictions that use the exam. Most jurisdictions are moving to a redesigned version between July 2026 and July 2028.
A State Bar of California spokesperson said the agency has found no license in the state under any version of her married or maiden names. A missing record isn’t proof she never sat an exam elsewhere, but bars generally list inactive and disciplined lawyers as well.
The Wall Street Journal, citing a person with direct knowledge, earlier reported that Zacharia did take the California Bar Exams after graduating from law school, but she did not pass.
The state makes it a misdemeanor for someone without a license to present themselves as entitled to practice law, carrying a sentence of up to a year in county jail and a $1,000 fine. The watchdog Campaign for Accountability asked the State Bar to investigate her statements and her work as general counsel of Fix California, a group started by Richard Grenell.
The bar said confidentiality laws prevent it from confirming whether it received the complaint.
