{"id":2788,"date":"2026-10-16T14:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T09:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2788"},"modified":"2026-10-16T14:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T09:04:11","slug":"trumps-new-press-secretary-faces-questions-over-legal-credentials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2788","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s new press secretary faces questions over legal credentials"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

US President Donald Trump\u2019s new press secretary, Katie Zacharia, is facing growing scrutiny over her legal credentials and has declined to say how frequently she will hold press briefings, raising questions about her approach to communicating with journalists.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In an interview with The Guardian on Thursday, Zacharia said the frequency of future briefings remained \u201cunknown at this time\u201d, adding that Trump was \u201chis best spokesperson\u201d and that she would interact with the press as needed.<\/p>\n

Zacharia replaced Karoline Leavitt after a rapid recruitment process. She said she received a call from a White House official on October 7, travelled from Los Angeles to Washington the following day and was offered the position on Friday. She accepted the role and began work on Monday.<\/p>\n

Her first press briefing on Tuesday drew criticism, while questions about her legal qualifications intensified after she appeared unable to answer a reporter\u2019s question about where she had passed the bar exam.<\/p>\n

Zacharia later told The New York Times that she had misheard the question because of noise from a nearby helicopter. However, she did not confirm to the newspaper whether she had passed the exam.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Questions over legal background<\/h3>\n

According to her LinkedIn profile, Zacharia graduated from Pepperdine University\u2019s law school in 2011 and worked as an associate at Chinese law firm Zhong Lun from 2011 to 2013.<\/p>\n

The Wall Street Journal, citing a person familiar with the matter, reported that she had failed the California bar exam.<\/p>\n

The State Bar of California also told The Guardian that it had no record of her being licensed to practise law under either her married name or her maiden name, Katie Black.<\/p>\n

In a separate interview with conservative outlet Human Events, Zacharia acknowledged that she had not passed the California bar exam.<\/p>\n

She said she had been distracted and excited about joining her husband in China after a period of long-distance marriage.<\/p>\n

A person familiar with the matter said Zacharia stood by describing herself as a lawyer, citing her law degree and experience in international transactional law.<\/p>\n

The source added that she had provided legal analysis rather than legal advice.<\/p>\n

However, legal experts note that the terms \u201clawyer\u201d and \u201cattorney\u201d are often used interchangeably.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, watchdog group Campaign for Accountability asked the California State Bar to investigate whether Zacharia had misled the public about her qualifications and potentially violated state law.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Previous roles and White House appointment<\/h3>\n

Zacharia\u2019s professional background has also attracted attention because of a reported gap of around 10 years on her LinkedIn profile.<\/p>\n

Wired reported that she worked as an affiliate marketer for fitness company Beachbody during that period.<\/p>\n

She later said she served as general counsel for Fix California, a conservative organisation founded by Richard Grenell, a longtime Trump ally.<\/p>\n

Further details about her roles at the organisation and the Chinese law firm have been sought by The Guardian.<\/p>\n

Before becoming press secretary, Zacharia advised Trump Media Group, which owns the president\u2019s Truth Social platform, and briefly served as a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security.<\/p>\n

Trump described her as a loyal supporter of his Make America Great Again movement when announcing her appointment.<\/p>\n

Zacharia declined to explain what reasons the White House gave for selecting her.<\/p>\n

She said she had monitored Trump\u2019s social media posts and appeared on conservative talk shows while seeking the role, rather than openly lobbying for the position.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US President Donald Trump\u2019s new press secretary, Katie Zacharia, is facing growing scrutiny over her legal credentials and has declined to say how frequently she will hold press briefings, raising questions about her approach to communicating with journalists. In an interview with The Guardian on Thursday, Zacharia said the frequency of future briefings remained \u201cunknown at this time\u201d, adding that Trump was \u201chis best spokesperson\u201d and that she would interact with the press as needed. Zacharia replaced Karoline Leavitt after a rapid recruitment process. She said she received a call…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2788\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}