When President Donald Trump announced Katie Zacharia would be his new White House press secretary, he called her "an attorney." Now, Zacharia, a conservative commentator who made her debut in the White House briefing room on Tuesday, is facing scrutiny over her credentials and how she has represented herself over the course of her career. Journalist Judd Legum, who writes the Popular Information newsletter, wrote on Tuesday that Zacharia has long touted her credentials as a lawyer during appearances on national news outlets. Legum added that Zacharia was identified as a lawyer during at least 18 appearances on Fox News Channel since March 2025.
While Zacharia graduated with a law degree from Pepperdine University, Legum wrote that he found no evidence she has ever passed a bar exam in any state or Washington, D.C. Aspiring lawyers must normally pass a state’s bar exam before they can be licensed to practice law in that state. However, the criteria for admission to the bar are set by each state, according to the American Bar Association.
White House press secretary positions have no formal bar-admission requirement under publicly available White House employment guidelines; bar admission is not a prerequisite for the communications role. On Tuesday, when a journalist asked which state Zacharia had passed the bar exam in, she replied: "When I moved to China." That has raised further questions about whether it is possible for her to have done so, and the legal work she has undertaken since. "I practiced international transaction law, with all the appropriate credentials," Zacharia said in a statement to Newsweek on Wednesday.
Here, Newsweek looks at the questions that have arisen about Zacharia’s legal career. There is no evidence that Zacharia ever passed a bar exam or has been admitted to practice law in any U.S. state or D.C., according to Legum. A spokesperson for the State Bar of California, where Zacharia resides, told The Washington Post that it "has no record of Kate Sharon Zacharia or Kate Sharon Black having been licensed to practice law in California." Newsweek has contacted the State Bar for further comment and is awaiting a response.
Zacharia did not respond to Newsweek's questions asking if she was ever licensed to practice law in the United States or if she had ever taken or passed a bar exam in any state. Zacharia graduated from Pepperdine University with a bachelor’s degree in political science and government in 2007, and a law degree in 2011, according to her LinkedIn profile. She went on to work as an associate on the international practice team at the law firm Zhong Lun in Beijing from August 2011 until June 2013, her profile said.
It added that she worked full-time as general counsel for Fix California, a nonprofit founded by Trump ally Richard Grenell, from January 2024 to March 2025. It is not clear what work Zacharia did in that role. However, a general counsel is an organization’s chief in-house lawyer, typically tasked with overseeing legal issues and advice across the organization.
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