China Bars Foreigners From Its National Bar Exam, Raising Questions Over Katie Zacharia's Claim She Passed
Zacharia says she had the right credentials, but reporters have found no record of her admission to practise
China's national bar exam excludes foreign nationals, a rule that applied while Katie Zacharia lived in Beijing from 2011 to 2013. Asked on Tuesday which US state she had passed the bar in, the new White House press secretary replied, 'When I moved to China.'
The answer matters because Zacharia has often called herself a lawyer. If she meant China's exam, two US experts on Chinese law say a US citizen could not have passed it. Judd Legum of the newsletter Popular Information also found no record of her in any US state bar. Her answer did not clarify which exam she meant.
What Zacharia Said After Her First Briefing
Zacharia held her first briefing on Tuesday, 13 October, four days after Donald Trump named her to the post. It lasted just under 15 minutes, and she took three questions, The Hill reported. Before this, she spoke for Homeland Security and advised Trump's media company. The White House posted the full briefing, which is embedded below. Afterwards, she stood beside Trump just outside the White House, where a reporter asked about the bar.
A White House official later said she and her husband moved to China after law school for his job at a US private equity firm. There, she said, she worked on cross-border deals. Pepperdine, her law school, confirmed she graduated in 2011. Her LinkedIn page says she worked in China between 2011 and 2013 as an associate on the International Practice Team at Zhong Lun Law Firm and for a children's rights group. The official did not name an exam.
What China's Bar Exam Rules Say
The South China Morning Post reviewed China's 2011 exam rules: foreign nationals could not sit it then. They also cannot practise Chinese law or argue cases in Chinese courts, Talking Points Memo and The Washington Post reported. Separate rules allow Hong Kong and Macau permanent residents with Chinese citizenship, and Taiwan residents, to sit the exam.
John Ohnesorge teaches law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. When Snopes asked whether she could have taken and passed the exam before 2017, he wrote: 'There's no possibility that she passed the Chinese bar exam, ever.' Donald Clarke, who studies Chinese law at George Washington University, told MS NOW that only Chinese citizens can sit it. Snopes found no evidence she ever practised law in the US or China.
What Happens Next
Zacharia has defended her record. 'I practiced international transaction law, with all the appropriate credentials,' she wrote to Snopes in an emailed statement. Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, praised her as a wonderful addition to the team but did not address the bar question. When NBC News asked whether she had ever passed the bar exam, a White House official did not directly answer.
On Wednesday, the watchdog group Campaign for Accountability asked the State Bar of California to investigate whether Zacharia misrepresented her legal credentials, MS NOW reported. She lives in California, where she studied law at Pepperdine, and USA Today found no record that she passed the bar there.
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