Arabic version: البيت الأبيض يدافع عن زكريا وسط تساؤلات بشأن مؤهلاتها القانونية
According to BBC News, the White House is defending new press secretary Katie Zacharia as questions are raised about her legal credentials. President Donald Trump described Zacharia as an attorney when announcing her appointment last week, and she has referred to herself as a lawyer.
When a reporter asked Zacharia on Tuesday in which state she had passed the bar exam required to be an attorney in the United States, she replied while standing alongside the president: “When I moved to China.” She does not appear to be registered to the bar in any state where she has lived. White House communications director Steven Cheung said she was “uniquely qualified and whip smart to help inform the American people”.
Zacharia said in a statement this week that she had practised “international transaction law, with all the appropriate credentials”. Pepperdine University confirmed that the 42-year-old political strategist graduated from its law school in California in 2011. A law degree does not itself provide a licence to practise law in the US.
She told the New York Times that, before she began appearing on cable news, Pepperdine’s president advised her that she could call herself a lawyer but not an attorney. The Wall Street Journal reported that Zacharia took California’s bar exam after law school but did not pass. Her LinkedIn profile says she worked as an associate at Zhong Lun Law Firm in Beijing from 2011 to 2013; China allows only Chinese citizens to obtain a licence to practise law, though foreign employees may work at law firms in other roles.
On Wednesday, Campaign for Accountability filed a complaint with the California State Bar Association seeking an investigation into whether Zacharia repeatedly presented herself publicly as entitled to practise law without a licence. The group said California law treats that conduct as a crime. Zacharia has also said she worked as outside counsel for the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank while in China. The BBC contacted both organisations for comment.
