Katie Zakharia's 'Qualifications'... New Crisis at the White House

Washington, Agencies: The White House faced mounting questions about the legal qualifications of its new spokesperson, Katie Zakharia, following a rocky first day in the role, after she gave an evasive answer about where she passed the bar exam. A U.S. watchdog group filed a complaint with the State Bar of California, requesting an investigation into whether President Donald Trump’s spokesperson violated the law by presenting herself as a lawyer despite lacking a license to practice. The Campaign for Accountability stated that Zakharia had presented herself as a lawyer during appearances on television programs and had identified herself as the general legal counsel for a conservative nonprofit based in California. Trump described Zakharia as a “lawyer” when announcing her appointment on Friday, but reporters found no record indicating she holds a license to practice law in any U.S. state. The White House spokesperson said, “I practiced international transactional law, fully qualified,” without clarifying whether she holds a U.S. law license or specifying where she was admitted to the bar, if at all. In response to reporters’ questions on Tuesday about where she passed the bar exam, she replied, “When I moved to China.” Zakharia, 41, graduated from Pepperdine University School of Law in 2011, but a law degree does not automatically qualify someone to practice law. Foreigners are not permitted to take the bar exam in China, although they can perform certain legal work in Chinese law firms. The controversy followed her awkward debut as White House spokesperson on Tuesday, when she read extensively from prepared remarks during a briefing that lasted only 14 minutes. She accepted questions from just three news outlets, all of which are supportive of Trump, and at one point mistakenly referred to the president as her husband.