Katie Zacharia exits White House press secretary role after five days
publishers 21articles 27first reported 13 Oct, 17:30 UTCdeveloping since 13 Oct · 10 editions
Katie Zacharia left her role as White House press secretary on Friday, five days after starting the job, following scrutiny of her claims about her legal career.
A White House official told the South China Morning Post that Zacharia was “let go,” while an official told The Hill that she was “transitioning out.” President Donald Trump denied firing her, saying he had encouraged her to reconsider whether the job would make her happy.
Questions about Zacharia’s credentials intensified after she told reporters she had passed a bar exam “when I moved to China,” without naming a jurisdiction. In a Fox News interview on Thursday, however, she acknowledged that she had failed the bar exam and had not taken it again. The Wall Street Journal reported that she failed California’s exam after earning a law degree from Pepperdine University in 2011.
Zacharia, 41, has described herself as a lawyer and previously listed herself as general counsel of a California-based conservative nonprofit. She said she practiced international transaction law in China with “all the appropriate credentials,” but has not identified any jurisdiction where she was admitted to practice. The Campaign for Accountability filed a complaint asking the State Bar of California to investigate whether she improperly presented herself as a lawyer without a license.
Her only White House briefing, held Tuesday, lasted about 14 minutes and included questions from three reporters. Former Clinton press secretary Joe Lockhart said Zacharia had been put into the role without adequate preparation and was “set up to fail.”
HOW THIS STORY WAS MADE
Written from 8 articles, 6 with the publisher's own text; 7 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one; this version written 76 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
- Publishers
- 21
- Source articles
- 27
- Given to the writer
- 8, 6 with the article's own text
- Independent newsrooms
- 7
- This version written
- 76 h after the record first saw the story
- Second model (editor)
- kept as written
- Publication gate
- passed
- Human review
- none
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