Katie Zacharia, the newly appointed White House press secretary, is facing questions about whether she is licensed to practise law in the United States after being unable to identify a state where she passed the bar exam during an exchange with reporters.
The issue arose on Tuesday after Zacharia’s first White House press briefing, when President Donald Trump spoke to journalists and was asked where she had qualified as an attorney. Trump turned to Zacharia, who was standing behind him, and asked which state she had passed the bar exam in.
“When I moved to China,” Zacharia replied, without identifying a US state where she was licensed.
Her response left questions about her legal qualifications unresolved. State bar examinations are generally administered within the relevant jurisdiction, while available professional records cited in reports did not show her listed in the attorney databases of California or Washington, DC.
The Substack publication Popular Information reported on Tuesday that it had searched records in all 50 states and Washington, DC, without finding evidence that Zacharia was licensed to practise law. The absence of a listing in the databases reviewed does not, by itself, establish the full extent of her legal qualifications or professional credentials.
In a statement, Zacharia said she had “practiced international transaction law, with all the appropriate credentials”. She did not specify whether she had passed a bar examination in any US state or identify the credentials to which she was referring.
White House communications director Steven Cheung defended her appointment, describing Zacharia as a valuable addition to the administration. “She is uniquely qualified and whip smart to help inform the American people about all the great things President Trump and his Administration have been doing, and she will do an incredible job as Press Secretary,” he said.
Zacharia graduated from Pepperdine University in California in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and government. She received a law degree from the university’s Caruso School of Law in 2011, according to the institution.
Her professional history includes a period as an associate at Beijing-headquartered Zhong Lun Law Firm, according to her LinkedIn profile. She also listed herself as general counsel for Fix California, a California-based non-profit organisation, from January 2024 to March 2025.
Trump announced Zacharia’s appointment in a Truth Social post the previous week, praising her record of support for him and describing her as an attorney. Zacharia subsequently called the opportunity to serve the president and the American people the “honor of a lifetime”.
“I want to thank President Trump for his trust that he has placed in me. I have wanted to work for him for a very long time,” she said during Tuesday’s briefing.
The exchange over her legal qualifications came as she began her new role as the administration’s principal spokesperson at the White House. Neither her statement nor the administration’s response identified a US jurisdiction in which she is admitted to practise law.
