WASHINGTON, October 16, 2026 — White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia has acknowledged that she never passed a U.S. bar exam, drawing renewed scrutiny over her professional background after she previously described herself as a lawyer and President Donald Trump referred to her as an attorney.
Zacharia confirmed the information during an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday. Asked whether she had attended Pepperdine University School of Law but failed the bar exam, she answered, “Correct.” She also confirmed that she had not taken the exam a second time.
The admission follows reports questioning whether Zacharia was licensed to practice law in any U.S. state. She graduated from Pepperdine University’s law school in 2011 and subsequently moved to China with her husband, who was working there for a private equity firm.
Explaining her decision not to retake the exam, Zacharia said she expected to move to China and did not believe she would need a U.S. bar license for the work she planned to undertake there. She has said she subsequently worked on international transactions within the international practice division of a Chinese law firm.
However, earning a law degree and obtaining a license to practice law are separate steps in the United States. A law school graduate generally must satisfy the relevant jurisdiction’s admission requirements before being authorized to practice law there. Available reporting has found no record of Zacharia being admitted to a U.S. state bar.
The controversy has also focused on how Zacharia has described her legal background publicly. She has used the term “lawyer” but maintains that she was careful about how she presented her qualifications. In an earlier interview, she said she consulted people in the legal profession about whether she could describe herself as a lawyer while providing legal analysis rather than legal advice.
Zacharia has also said she never presented herself as an “attorney at law.” Nevertheless, Trump referred to her as an attorney in a social media announcement of her appointment, adding to questions about the terminology used to describe her professional credentials.
Two watchdog organizations, Campaign for Accountability and Democracy Defenders Fund, have filed complaints with the State Bar of California seeking an investigation into Zacharia’s use of legal titles. The complaints raise questions about whether her public descriptions of her professional background complied with applicable state rules. Their filing does not, by itself, establish that a violation occurred, and a formal finding of wrongdoing has not been announced.
The White House has defended Zacharia’s qualifications. Officials have emphasized that she holds a law degree from Pepperdine and said she worked on international transactional law after moving to China. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung has described her as a qualified addition to the administration’s communications team.
Questions about Zacharia’s credentials have emerged during her first week as the administration’s chief spokesperson. She conducted her first White House press briefing on Tuesday, October 13, after taking on the role earlier in the week.
The dispute now centers on the distinction between legal education, work involving legal matters and formal admission to practice law. Zacharia has acknowledged that she did not pass California’s bar exam and did not retake it, while defending the way she has characterized her professional experience. Any further action by the California State Bar could determine whether the complaints lead to a formal review of her use of legal titles.