White House press secretary Katie Zacharia confirms she never passed bar exam after saying she’s a lawyer

October 15, 2026 / 3:28 PM EDT / CBS News

Washington — White House press secretary Katie Zacharia said Thursday that she never passed the bar, although she's called herself a lawyer and President Trump has referred to her as an attorney.

Zacharia made the comment in an interview with conservative commentator Jack Posobiec after the Wall Street Journal reported that she failed the bar exam in California in 2011 and did not pass the bar in any other U.S. state in which she's lived. Zacharia graduated from Pepperdine University's law school.

Zacharia told Posobiec she took the bar exam in California but didn't pass, saying she was distracted by her plans to get married and move to China for her husband's work around the same time. She said she "didn't think much" of the results, and said she didn't need to pass the exam to do her work in China.

Zacharia also said she never described herself as an "attorney at law," and said there's a "lot of misinformation around the fact that I labeled myself a lawyer." She said she consulted with multiple experts.

"I was very careful how I executed this. I never came across as someone…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/entertainment/