Press Secretary Katie Zacharia Accused in Formal Complaint of Violating State Law by Lying About Her Legal Experience

A watchdog group on Wednesday filed a formal complaint with the State Bar of California against White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia, alleging she violated state law by repeatedly claiming to be a lawyer despite never being admitted to practice in California — or any other jurisdiction.The complaint, signed by Campaign for Accountability Executive Director Michelle Kuppersmith, cites reporting from Popular Information and asks the State Bar’s Chief Trial Counsel to investigate whether Ms. Zacharia violated California Business and Professions Code sections 6125 and 6126, which prohibit the unauthorized practice of law and holding oneself out as entitled to practice law.One section makes it a misdemeanor to pretend to be a lawyer. The statute mandates that “Any person advertising or holding himself or herself out as practicing or entitled to practice law or otherwise practicing law who is not an active licensee of the State Bar, or otherwise authorized pursuant to statute or court rule to practice law in this state at the time of doing so, is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in a county jail or by a fine of up to one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both that fine and imprisonment.”“The public is entitled to rely on the representation that a person who calls herself a lawyer is in fact licensed to practice law,” Ms. Kuppersmith writes. “California law protects that reliance by making it a crime for an unlicensed person to hold herself out as entitled to practice. That protection means little if it is not enforced against prominent figures who make such claims to millions of viewers.”Ms. Zacharia, who holds a Juris Doctor degree from Pepperdine University School of Law, has called herself a lawyer on numerous national television and podcast appearances. “I’m a lawyer,” she said on the Greg Kelly Show on October 5. In August, she declared on Fox & Friends First that “as a lawyer, the procedural steps are absolutely critical.” On the “In Front of Us” podcast that same month, she said, “I’m a lawyer; I went to Pepperdine, Pepperdine Law.” The complaint notes Ms. Zacharia was also identified on screen as a lawyer during at least 18 Fox News appearances since March 2025.The questions swirling around Ms. Zacharia’s past are made more relevant since Republicans have attacked the Democratic candidate for Senate in Michigan, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, for not being a doctor. He earned a Doctor of Medicine from Columbia University but never completed residency. The complaint draws heavily on an October 13 investigation by Popular Information, which reported that it had searched licensing records in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and found no evidence Ms. Zacharia has ever been admitted to the bar anywhere. Popular Information noted that state bar directories typically retain records even for inactive, suspended, or disbarred attorneys, making the total absence of any record notable.On Tuesday President Trump, when was confronted with the report on the South Lawn and asked where Ms. Zacharia passed the bar exam, he turned the question to Ms. Zacharia directly. “When I moved to China,” she answered. China does not administer a bar exam to American citizens, nor do American states offer the exam abroad. There could, though, be an explanation. A Georgetown Law professor who specializes in China, Mark Jia, tells The New York Sun that “China permits foreign lawyers to serve as foreign legal consultants at domestic law firms. This category of legal worker was formally recognized after 2017; in general they have to be experienced lawyers licensed abroad and are limited to practicing foreign and international law.”Mr. Jia adds that Ms. Zacharia “worked in Beijing before 2017, back when it was more of a regulatory wild west with respect to qualifications for foreign lawyers working at Chinese firms. I do not know what her formal designation was, but my guess is that she was some form of foreign legal consultant and was able to slip through the cracks without any bar admission because the Chinese government had not yet issued targeted regulations at this class of legal workers. Or maybe she was a paralegal or doing paralegal-type work under some other classification.”Pressed further by Politico to clarify her qualifications, Ms. Zacharia offered a different explanation, saying she “practiced international transactional law, with all the appropriate credentials” while working at the Chinese firm Zhong Lun from 2011 to 2013.The complaint also raises questions about Ms. Zacharia’s year-plus stint as “General Counsel” of Fix California, a nonprofit founded by Trump ally Ric Grenell. The filing argues that if she performed legal work in that role without a license, she may have separately violated the state’s unauthorized practice of law statute. Internal Revenue Services filings show Fix California paid her no salary, though she received more than $27,000 in fundraising commissions in 2024.The Campaign for Accountability is asking the State Bar to investigate fully and, if warranted, refer the matter to the Ventura County District Attorney for prosecution.

Press Secretary Katie Zacharia Accused in Formal Complaint of Violating State Law by Lying About Her Legal Experience

Press Secretary Katie Zacharia Accused in Formal Complaint of Violating State Law by Lying About Her Legal Experience

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