Trump’s new press secretary admits failing bar exam

CREDENTIALS? Katie Zacharia said she had been told she could label herself a lawyer given her law degree and business law experience in China

New White House press secretary Katie Zacharia on Thursday acknowledged that she had failed the bar exam, as her credentials face scrutiny.

Zacharia has described herself as a lawyer during television appearances and on social media, and listed herself as general counsel of a California-based conservative nonprofit.

However, the legal credentials of the press secretary, who US President Donald Trump appointed last week, were called into question after she gave an inconclusive answer about where she had passed the bar exam.

In a Fox News interview on Thursday, host Sean Hannity asked Zacharia, who graduated from Pepperdine University’s law school in 2011: “You took the bar exam, but you didn’t pass the bar exam, correct?”

“Yes,” she responded.

In a separate interview with right-wing influencer Jack Posobiec on the conservative media outlet Real America’s Voice on Thursday, Zacharia said she had registered to take the bar exam, but was “distracted and overwhelmed” by plans to move to China with her husband.

“The results are somewhat inconsequential because I knew I wouldn’t need the bar in China,” she said.

Foreign nationals cannot sit China’s bar exam, although they can undertake certain legal work at Chinese law firms.

Hannity later asked Zacharia if she had ever taken the bar exam a second time, to which she said: “I did not.”

“I had four kids in six years,” she said. “It was never my intent to go into the practice of law.”

Zacharia said on Real America’s Voice that “many people in the field” had assured her that she could “label myself a lawyer,” given her law degree and experience in business law gained in China, where she worked at a Beijing law firm.

She added that she could “provide legal analysis, not legal advice.”

“I was very careful how I executed this,” she said.

The Campaign for Accountability, a political ethics organization, on Wednesday called for the California Bar Association to launch an investigation.

“In California, calling yourself a lawyer without a license isn’t puffery; it’s a crime,” the organization said in a press release.

During the interview with Posobiec, she also said that China lacked “proper toilets.”

She said that the perception in 2016 was that China would soon overtake the US.

“We were all being told Hillary [Rodham Clinton] was going to win [the US presidential election]. The golden days or the glory days of America were over. That China was on the horizon,” she said.

“I remember this very distinctly, having just come from China, thinking: ‘How is China the next country on the horizon? They don’t even have proper toilets,’” she added.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday suggested she might want to make another trip to the country.

“We welcome her to visit China more often when she has the opportunity,” spokeswoman Mao Ning (毛寧) told reporters, fighting back a smile.