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This newsletter contains important updates related to our ongoing investigation into the professional background of newly appointed White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia. Hours after Popular Information’s initial report was published Tuesday morning, Trump and Zacharia were confronted with the news on the South Lawn of the White House.
Zacharia’s response did not go well.
Popular Information’s story — and Zacharia’s fumbling reply — was picked up by media outlets around the globe, including The Washington Post, CNN, NBC News, The New York Times, CBS News, The Atlantic, The Hill, Forbes, New York Magazine, The Daily Beast, The Daily Mail, and others.
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UPDATE: Katie Zacharia’s disastrous response to Popular Information’s report
Zacharia, who claimed for years to be a lawyer, is not a lawyer.
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For years, President Trump’s new press secretary, Katie Zacharia, has publicly claimed she is a lawyer. Zacharia has repeatedly said she was “outside counsel” to the World Bank and “general counsel” to a California non-profit. Trump himself touted Zacharia as an “attorney” in his post announcing her appointment on Truth Social.
On Tuesday morning, Popular Information reported that there was no evidence that Zacharia was ever licensed to practice law in any state.
A few hours later, Trump was confronted with Popular Information’s report on the South Lawn of the White House by the New York Times’ Shawn McCreesh. Trump motioned to Zacharia, who was standing behind him, to answer the question:
Q: You said she’s an attorney. Where did she pass the bar exam? Which state?
TRUMP (to Zacharia): Which state?
ZACHARIA: When I moved to China.
Q: Where did you pass the bar exam?
Watch:
When Zacharia was pressed again, she appeared to wave the question away.
Zacharia’s answer makes no sense. China’s bar exam is not available to U.S. citizens and U.S. states do not offer bar exams in China.
On Tuesday afternoon, Zacharia provided a somewhat different response to Politico’s Dasha Burns. “I practiced international transactional law, with all the appropriate credentials,” Zacharia said.
Zacharia did work for Zhong Lun, a Chinese law firm, from 2011 to 2013. Currently, a foreigner can only practice law at a Chinese firm if they have practiced for two years in their home jurisdiction, among other conditions. The position is called a “foreign legal consultant.”
Mark Jia, a Georgetown Law professor who specializes in China, explained that the formal rules for foreigners at Chinese law firms were put into place in 2017. But even before 2017, Jia said, he was not aware of anyone like Zacharia being hired as a foreign legal consultant. “Why would a Chinese law firm hire someone to advise on foreign law if they were not licensed to practice that law in their home countries?” Jia asked. He suggested it was more likely Zacharia was employed as a paralegal or another similar position.
Further, Jia argued that, even in the highly unlikely event that Zacharia was hired as a foreign legal consultant in China, it would not make her a lawyer:
It is not accurate for her to call herself a lawyer. There is a difference between being licensed to practice law and doing legal work… The Chinese government does not make someone an attorney simply by allowing them to perform some legal work for a law firm. You have to be admitted as a lawyer somewhere, and I have seen no evidence that she was admitted as such anywhere.
The questions about Zacharia’s legal credentials and her fumbling answers resulted in a flood of national and international news coverage.
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