Katie Zacharia defends calling herself a lawyer in new interview

President Donald Trump's new White House media administrator Katie Zacharia is defending her self-description as a lawyer, during acknowledging that she took the bar exam and considered the results "inconsequential."

Zacharia's lawful qualifications have faced expanding scrutiny since her debut White House media briefing before this week, whenever shortly afterward she was asked which province she passed the bar exam in and replied: "When I moved to China."

In an discussion Thursday alongside right-wing provocateur Jack Posobiec on Real America's Voice, she did not refuse reports that she'd unsuccessful to continue the bar.

Zacharia, who moved to China following earning her law flat in 2011, told Posobiec she had already preregistered for the bar exam before moving to Beijing, anywhere her hubby was operating at an American personal equity firm.

"I didn't desire to retreat from that," Zacharia stated of the bar exam. "And we knew we would be moving out to China, and I was evidently incredibly distracted and overwhelmed and enthusiastic for eventually being wed to person who I had been long-distance from for at smallest a year."

Zacharia stated she idea she'd obtain the bar and "see what happens."

"The results are slightly inconsequential since I knew I wouldn't need the bar in China, and we remaining shortly thereafter," stated Zacharia.

The Wall Street Journal reported delayed Wednesday that Zacharia unsuccessful California's bar exam following graduating from Pepperdine University in 2011.

A Business Insider assessment of records for all 50 states and the District of Columbia established no evidence that Zacharia had been admitted to custom law in the US.

In China, Zacharia stated she took a job in the global custom division of the Zhong Lun law firm, anywhere she stated she worked on multimillion-dollar shareholder agreements and cross-border transactions. She stated she was one of four associates under a elder partner.

"After moving to China, I didn't really think much of the bar results or regard that item that I needed to concentration on," Zacharia told Posobiec, adding, "There's no Chinese bar. I had adequate credentials, which was my law degree, to be capable to do this practice."

"I had all the necessary requirements to do that, and I was capable to do it efficiently and well," she said.

She additionally stated that she never retook the bar exam following returning to the US and having the archetypal of four children alongside her hubby inside six years.

Zacharia stated she consulted alongside group inside the lawful site "for a extremely lengthy time" and was told it would be satisfactory to call herself a attorney "and provision lawful analysis, not lawful advice."

"They stated absolutely, entirely throughout the commission — you can call yourself a lawyer, you have a JD, and to buffer that, you have global lawful cognition in transactional law," Zacharia said.

"It's unlucky that group dub this as several benevolent of conspiracy," she said. "The fact is, I was extremely careful how I executed this, and I never came throughout as person who was an attorney at law."

Zacharia's LinkedIn leaf says she served as broad advise for Fix California, a governmental assistance group, between January 2024 and March 2025. In California, it is a misdemeanor to custom law or to advertise yourself as an attorney without a license.

At smallest two watchdog groups have submitted a grievance concerning Zacharia alongside the State Bar of California this week.