White House press secretary Katie Zacharia says she never passed bar exam

Zacharia told conservative commentator Jack Posobiec she failed the California bar in 2011 and never passed any bar, saying she did not need the credential for work in China.

By Felo News Desk · Published Fri, 16 Oct 2026 01:52:43 GMT

White House press secretary Katie Zacharia told conservative commentator Jack Posobiec on Thursday that she never passed a bar exam, confirming a Wall Street Journal report that she failed the California bar in 2011 and has not passed elsewhere.

What happened

Zacharia, a Pepperdine law graduate, appeared in an on‑camera interview with Real America's Voice host Jack Posobiec on October 15, 2026. During the interview she explained that she took the California bar exam, failed, and did not retake it after returning to the United States. She attributed the failure to being “distracted” by her upcoming marriage and a planned move to China for her husband’s work.

What the reports add

Both dailymail.co.uk and CBS News report that the Wall Street Journal revealed Zacharia’s bar‑exam failure earlier in the week. CBS News adds that Zacharia said she “didn’t think much” of the results and that she believed the credential was unnecessary for her work in China because “there’s no Chinese bar.” Dailymail.co.uk notes that Zacharia claimed she had already pre‑registered for the exam and that she would have withdrawn only if she had to move abroad.

What was said

In the Posobiec interview, Zacharia said, “I was obviously incredibly distracted and overwhelmed and excited for finally being married to someone who I’d been long distance from for at least a year,” as reported by CBS News. She also stated, “There’s no Chinese bar, and I had enough credentials, which was my law degree, to be able to do this practice,” according to dailymail.co.uk. Zacharia emphasized that she never described herself as an “attorney at law,” adding that “there’s a lot of misinformation around the fact that I labeled myself a lawyer,” per CBS News.

How it came about

Zacharia was appointed White House press secretary on October 9, 2026, after a career that included a stint at the Department of Homeland Security and a senior communications role at Trump Media, as covered in Felo News’s earlier article Trump offers Katie Zacharia White House press secretary post. Her first briefing on October 14 drew criticism for its scripted nature, detailed in Felo’s rocky debut. The bar‑exam controversy emerged weeks later, prompting a California bar complaint filed by the Campaign for Accountability on October 15, noted in Felo’s bar complaint article.

Key facts

Katie Zacharia failed the California bar exam in 2011 and has not passed any other state bar. (cbsnews.com)
Zacharia said she was distracted by her upcoming marriage and a planned move to China at the time of the exam. (cbsnews.com)
She asserted she never called herself an attorney and that there is no Chinese bar exam. (dailymail.co.uk)