Trump's new press secretary Katie Zacharia admits failing bar exam

White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia acknowledged on Thursday that she failed the bar exam, a requirement for practicing law in the United States. Her credentials face scrutiny after she described herself as a lawyer on television and social media.

Who is the new White House press secretary Katie Zacharia?

Katie Zacharia is a 41-year-old former business lawyer abroad whom President Donald Trump appointed as White House press secretary last week. She graduated from Pepperdine University's law school in 2011. She succeeded Karoline Leavitt, who stepped down in August to care for her young children.

Zacharia has also listed herself as general counsel of a California-based conservative nonprofit. Her legal credentials were questioned after she gave an inconclusive answer about where she had passed the bar exam.

Did Katie Zacharia take the bar exam?

In a Fox News interview on Thursday, host Sean Hannity asked Zacharia: "You took the bar exam, but you didn't pass the bar exam, correct?" She replied: "Yes." A law degree does not automatically qualify someone to practice law.

In a separate interview with Real America's Voice, Zacharia said she had registered for the 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 whether she had taken the exam a second time. "I did not," she said.

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

Can Katie Zacharia call herself a lawyer?

Zacharia said on Real America's Voice that "many people in the field" had assured her she could "label myself a lawyer." She cited her law degree and her experience in business law in China, where she worked at a Beijing law firm.

She added that she could "provide legal analysis, not legal advice." She said: "I was very careful how I executed this."

The Campaign for Accountability, a political ethics organization, called on Wednesday 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.

What happened at Katie Zacharia's first press briefing?

Zacharia held her first White House press briefing on Tuesday. It was an unusually short press conference, and she answered questions from only three journalists.