Watchdog asks California bar to investigate Zacharia’s credentials
On Wednesday, Katie Zacharia told the New York Times that when she first began appearing on cable news, she had asked Pepperdine University how she should identify herself. She said she was advised by the university’s president that she could call herself a lawyer, but not an attorney.
The disclosure came the same day the Campaign for Accountability, a watchdog group, filed a complaint with the California State Bar Association. The complaint asks the bar association to investigate whether Zacharia “repeatedly held herself out to the public as entitled to practise law without a licence to do so, conduct California law treats as a crime.”
White House communications director Steven Cheung called Zacharia “uniquely qualified and whip smart to help inform the American people” in a statement responding to questions about her credentials. In her own written statement this week, Zacharia said: “I practised international transaction law, with all the appropriate credentials.”
At a Tuesday appearance alongside the president, Zacharia was asked by a reporter in which state she had passed the bar exam required to practice law in the United States. She answered, standing beside Trump: “When I moved to China.” Zacharia does not appear to be registered to the bar in any state where she has lived, according to the BBC.
Trump had introduced Zacharia as “an attorney” when announcing her appointment last week. The Wall Street Journal, citing a person with direct knowledge of the matter, reported that Zacharia took the California bar exam after graduating from law school but did not pass. The source told the outlet that she took the exam around the time she was planning a wedding and preparing to move to China with her husband-to-be. California’s bar exam is widely regarded as one of the hardest in the United States to pass.
Pepperdine University confirmed that the 42-year-old political strategist graduated from its law school in 2011. A law degree is not, on its own, a license to practice law in the United States.
Zacharia moved to Beijing for her husband’s job at an American private equity firm. Her LinkedIn profile states she worked as an associate at Zhong Lun Law Firm in Beijing from 2011 to 2013. In China, only Chinese citizens are eligible for a license to practice law; foreign employees may work at law firms in other roles.
In February last year, Zacharia said on the conservative radio programme The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show that she had worked as outside counsel for the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank during her time in China. The BBC has contacted the World Bank and IFC for comment. It is understood the World Bank Group sometimes retains outside law firms, and that those firms decide which of their lawyers are assigned to which parts of any work.
Zacharia has also served as general counsel for Fix California, a conservative non-profit started by Trump ally Ric Grenell, according to her LinkedIn profile.
She held her first White House briefing this week.