A nonpartisan watchdog on Wednesday filed a complaint with the State Bar of California over new White House press secretary Katie Zacharia’s claims of being an attorney.
The Campaign for Accountability (CfA) has formally asked the California Bar to investigate whether Zacharia, whose stumbling first press briefing on Tuesday was panned by critics, broke state law by falsely identifying herself as a lawyer.
The group’s complaint notes that while Zacharia received a Juris Doctor in 2011 from the Pepperdine University School of Law, there is no record of her being admitted to practice law in any US jurisdiction.
“A law degree, standing alone, does not entitle its holder to practice law,” the complaint states. “When the White House was asked whether Ms. Zacharia had ever been admitted to a bar, its press office responded only by referring the reporter to President Trump’s social media post announcing her appointment, which described her as ‘an attorney.’”
When asked by a reporter on Tuesday about where she passed the bar exam, Zacharia replied that she became an attorney “when I moved to China.”
However, the complaint notes that “published reporting indicates… that China does not permit foreign nationals to sit for its national bar exam or to practice Chinese law.”
And even if China had allowed her to practice law, the complaint says that this would still not allow her to represent herself as an attorney in the US.
The complaint concludes that Zacharia “appears to have violated” Section 6126(a) of the California Business and Professions Code, which states anyone who makes false claims about being licensed to practice law is guilty of a misdemeanor offense “punishable by up to one year in a county jail or by a fine of up to $1,000, or by both that fine and imprisonment.”
Michelle Kuppersmith, executive director of CfA, pointed to Zacharia’s repeated statements during television appearances about being a lawyer as a way to “buttress her reputation and credibility as a television legal commentator and now as the White House spokesperson.”
“Yet it seems it was all a lie,” Kuppersmith added. “In California, calling yourself a lawyer without a license isn’t puffery; it’s a crime. The State Bar should investigate whether Ms. Zacharia has misled the public about her credentials and hold her accountable if she has.”
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When all they’ve got is bullshit, it makes me so happy to see them called out on their bullshit.
How would one get other state’s bar’s to bring a suit against Zacharia? This could be fun.
Technically, her claiming to be an attorney while on the national stage and acting as a federal employee can be construed as a fraudulent claim made to the people of California, even if she is not falsely claiming to be a lawyer while in California (or claiming to be licensed to practice law in California)
What matters is that she is misrepresenting herself to people who are in California (among everywhere else)
Theoretically she could face charges for this from literally every bar association, especially those 42 states which participate in the Uniform Bar exam since DC is a part of that
She probably didnt realize this considering she is not a lawyer (rimshot)
