The new White House press secretary failed the bar exam. She shared posts calling her an attorney anyway

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New White House press secretary Katie Zacharia shared at least 15 social media posts identifying her as an “attorney” over the past two years, despite having failed the California bar exam and acknowledging publicly she had been advised not to use that term.

The posts, published to Zacharia’s X and Truth Social accounts between April 2025 and September 2026, included Fox News headlines and One America News segments identifying her as an attorney, a designation she repeatedly amplified to her followers.

At least one of those posts has since been deleted, but posts reviewed by CNN show that Zacharia had amplified the title across both platforms. She also repeatedly referred to herself as a lawyer in television and podcast appearances, according to a review of interview transcripts.

The posts raise new questions about how Zacharia publicly presented her legal credentials after graduating from Pepperdine University Caruso School of Law in 2011.

A source familiar with her thinking confirmed a Wall Street Journal report that she had failed the bar exam that year.

In interviews with The New York Times and Real America’s Voice, Zacharia said she had consulted Pepperdine’s president and others about how to describe her qualifications before appearing on television, and was told she could use the term “lawyer,” but not “attorney” or “esquire.” A source familiar with her thinking said that sharing the posts on social media was not intended to be an endorsement of using the title “attorney.”

“They said absolutely across the board, you can call yourself a lawyer, you have a JD, and, to buffer that, you have international legal experience in transactional law, which gives you the ability to analyze it, not necessarily give advice,” Zacharia told Real America’s Voice.

California requires those who practice law in the state to have passed the bar exam and makes it a misdemeanor to pretend to be a lawyer. The California bar association told CNN it had no record of her “having been licensed to practice law in California,” though it said it could not comment on whether she took the bar exam, citing confidentiality requirements.

“The truth is, is I was very careful how I executed this, and I never came across as someone who was an attorney at law,” Zacharia told Real America’s Voice.

But despite not having passed the bar in the state where she worked, Zacharia repeatedly promoted coverage that called her an attorney.

On April 26, 2025, Zacharia shared a Fox News headline on X reading, “Only Democrats don’t want proof of citizenship in US elections, attorney says.” The post has since been deleted.

She also shared the same headline six times on Truth Social that day, according to six posts on her account and another again on May 14 .

On August 23, 2025, she shared another Fox News headline describing her as an attorney, this time in a segment criticizing California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

She also reposted six One America News posts identifying her as “Attorney”: on May 14, 2026 , two posts on June 4 , another on June 17 , and two posts on September 11 .

“I’m a lawyer,” she said during an appearance on “The Greg Kelly Show” in early October, while discussing the process for confirming federal attorney nominees.

In an October 2023 interview with a Christian podcast, Zacharia said she attended Pepperdine’s law school before she moved to Beijing, where she said worked in the legal field for “about two, two and a half years.”

Zacharia told Real America’s Voice that when she moved to Beijing to join her husband – with whom she had previously been in a long-distance relationship – she considered the result of the bar exam “inconsequential,” because it wouldn’t affect her ability to work in China.

“I didn’t really think much of the bar results or consider that something that I needed to focus on,” she said.

Zacharia said she worked in the “international practice division” at Zhong Lun Law firm, one of four associates under a senior partner who worked on multi-million dollar shareholder deals.

“I had all the necessary requirements to do that,” she said.

According to Chinese law, foreigners are not eligible to take China’s bar exam, meaning they are unable to work as licensed lawyers and cannot participate in litigation work.

Questions about Zacharia’s credentials spilled into public view this week when reporters pressed Trump about where his new press secretary had passed the bar exam after the investigative newsletter Popular Information reported it was unclear if she had ever taken it.

Asked by the president which state she had passed the exam in, Zacharia responded, “When I moved to China.” She subsequently told The New York Times that she had misheard the question over the sound of Marine One and thought she was being asked where she went after law school.

“I assumed the question was, ‘Where were you after law school?’” she told the paper.

A watchdog group, Campaign for Accountability, has asked the State Bar of California to investigate whether Zacharia misrepresented her legal qualifications.

The White House has defended Zacharia, with a spokesman saying she was “uniquely qualified and whip smart to help inform the American people about all the great things President Trump and his Administration have been doing.”

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新任白宫新闻秘书凯蒂·扎卡里亚在过去两年中至少发布了 15 条社交媒体帖子，称自己为“律师”，尽管她没有通过加州律师资格考试，并且公开承认有人建议她不要使用“律师”这个词。

2025 年 4 月至 2026 年 9 月期间，Zacharia 在她的 X 和 Truth Social 账户上发布了一系列帖子，其中包括福克斯新闻的头条新闻和 One America News 的片段，这些内容都表明她是律师，她也反复向她的追随者强调了这一身份。

至少其中一条帖子已被删除，但CNN查阅的帖子显示，扎卡里亚在两个平台上都转发了该标题。根据采访记录，她还在电视和播客节目中多次自称律师。

这些帖子引发了新的疑问，即扎卡里亚在 2011 年从佩珀代因大学卡鲁索法学院毕业后，是如何公开展示她的法律资历的。

一位了解她想法的消息人士证实了《华尔街日报》的报道，即她当年未能通过律师资格考试。

扎卡里亚在接受《纽约时报》和“美国之声”采访时表示，在上电视之前，她曾咨询过佩珀代因大学校长和其他人，询问如何描述自己的资历。她被告知可以使用“律师”（lawyer），但不能使用“律师”（attorney）或“先生”（esquire）。一位了解她想法的消息人士称，她在社交媒体上分享这些帖子并非意在认可使用“律师”（attorney）这一头衔。

扎卡里亚告诉“真正的美国之声”：“他们说，绝对可以称自己为律师，你拥有法学博士学位，而且，为了弥补这一点，你拥有国际交易法方面的法律经验，这使你能够分析问题，但不一定会给出建议。”

加州规定，在该州执业的律师必须通过律师资格考试，冒充律师属于轻罪。加州律师协会告诉CNN，他们没有她“获得加州律师执业资格”的记录，但以保密规定为由，无法评论她是否参加了律师资格考试。

“事实上，我处理这件事非常谨慎，我从来没有表现得像个律师，”扎卡里亚告诉“真正的美国之声”。

尽管扎卡里亚没有通过她工作所在州的律师资格考试，但她却反复宣传媒体称她为律师。

2025年4月26日，扎卡里亚在X上分享了一条福克斯新闻的标题：“律师称，只有民主党人不希望美国大选要求出示公民身份证明。”该帖子后来被删除。

根据她账号上的六条帖子显示，当天她还在 Truth Social 上分享了同一标题六次，并在 5 月 14 日再次分享了一次。

2025 年 8 月 23 日，她转发了另一则福克斯新闻的头条新闻，称她是一名律师，这次是在一段批评加州州长加文·纽森的报道中。

她还转发了六篇“一个美国新闻”的文章，称自己为“律师”：一篇发布于 2026 年 5 月 14 日，两篇发布于 6 月 4 日，一篇发布于 6 月 17 日，两篇发布于 9 月 11 日。

“我是一名律师，”她在 10 月初做客“格雷格·凯利秀”节目时说道，当时她正在讨论联邦检察官提名确认程序。

2023 年 10 月，扎卡里亚在接受基督教播客采访时表示，她曾在佩珀代因大学法学院就读，之后搬到北京，并在法律领域工作了“大约两年到两年半”。

扎卡里亚告诉“真正的美国之声”，当她搬到北京与丈夫团聚时（此前她与丈夫一直保持异地恋），她认为律师资格考试的结果“无关紧要”，因为它不会影响她在中国工作的能力。

“我并没有太在意律师资格考试的结果，也没有觉得这是我需要关注的事情，”她说。

扎卡里亚说，她曾在中伦律师事务所的“国际业务部”工作，是高级合伙人手下的四名律师之一，负责处理数百万美元的股东交易。

“我具备做这件事的所有必要条件，”她说。

根据中国法律，外国人没有资格参加中国的律师资格考试，这意味着他们不能成为执业律师，也不能参与诉讼工作。

本周，有关扎卡里亚资历的问题被公之于众。此前，调查性通讯《大众信息》报道称，尚不清楚她是否参加过律师资格考试。随后，记者们追问特朗普，他的新任新闻秘书是在哪里通过的律师资格考试。

当总统问扎卡里亚是在哪个州通过的考试时，她回答说：“我搬到中国的时候。” 随后她告诉《纽约时报》，她当时听错了问题，因为当时“海军陆战队一号”直升机的轰鸣声太大，她以为总统问的是她法学院毕业后去了哪里。

她告诉报社：“我以为问题是，‘你从法学院毕业后去了哪里？’”

监督组织“问责运动”已要求加州律师协会调查扎卡里亚是否虚报了她的法律资格。

白宫为扎卡里亚辩护，一位发言人表示，她“具备独特的资格和过人的智慧，能够帮助美国人民了解特朗普总统及其政府所做的所有伟大事情”。