Even before Katie Zacharia held her first briefing as the new White House press secretary, she began her tenure with a severe credibility deficit. Multiple reports made clear that the onetime conservative commentator peddled unhinged conspiratorial nonsense via social media, which was exposed before she had said a word on the administration’s behalf.

Zacharia’s troubles metastasized, however, when she held her first press briefing (with an emphasis on “brief”) and left little doubt that she was wholly unprepared for the job Donald Trump gave her.

But in case that weren’t quite enough, the president’s new chief spokesperson faced yet another problem during her first week on the job: While Zacharia has routinely presented herself to the public as an attorney, Popular Information’s Judd Legum could find no evidence that she has ever been licensed to practice law in any state.

Shortly after the press secretary’s train wreck of a briefing, Trump spoke briefly to reporters, one of whom asked in which state Zacharia had passed the bar exam. The president turned to her to respond, and Zacharia said it was when she “moved to China.”

Her response didn’t really answer the underlying question.

Indeed, on Wednesday morning, a watchdog group called the Campaign for Accountability filed a bar complaint in California against the White House press secretary (Zacharia’s home is in the Golden State), alleging that she misrepresented her credentials. The complaint read in part:

Ms. Zacharia now speaks for the President of the United States from the White House podium. She has relied on her legal pedigree to give her credibility both in that role and to her statements as a television legal commentator. The public is entitled to rely on the representation that a person who calls herself a lawyer is in fact licensed to practice law. California law protects that reliance by making it a crime for an unlicensed person to hold herself out as entitled to practice. That protection means little if it is not enforced against prominent figures who make such claims to millions of viewers.

For these reasons, CfA respectfully requests that the State Bar of California conduct a thorough investigation into whether Ms. Zacharia has violated sections 6125 and 6126 and, if it finds that she has, take all appropriate action, including referral to the Ventura County District Attorney or other appropriate prosecuting authorities.

It’s worth emphasizing that Zacharia did graduate from law school in 2011, but there’s obviously a qualitative difference between getting a law degree and becoming an attorney. A related report in The Washington Post added:

Several legal ethics experts said that if a person is not a licensed lawyer but is identifying as one, that presents serious ethical and legal problems. “A J.D. degree does not make you a lawyer,” said Stephen Gillers, a professor at New York University School of Law.

Bruce A. Green, the director of the Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics at Fordham University School of Law, agreed. “A law school graduate is just that — a law school graduate,” he said. A person is considered a lawyer or an attorney only after being admitted to practice law, Green said, adding that in most states, this requires passing a bar exam and demonstrating proper character.

The same report quoted Leonard M. Niehoff, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School, who added there could be consequences for someone misrepresenting their legal credentials.

“Many, if not all, states have statutes that prohibit the unauthorized practice of law, which commonly includes falsely holding oneself out as a licensed attorney for purposes of monetary gain,” Niehoff said. “Making false or misleading statements about being licensed as an attorney therefore raises not just serious ethical issues but legal ones.”

But what about the possibility that Zacharia practiced law in China? The Post also spoke with Donald C. Clarke, a professor at George Washington University Law School who specializes in Chinese law, and he explained that she couldn’t have passed a Chinese bar exam because the exam is only available to Chinese citizens.

If Zacharia ever holds another press briefing, it’s a safe bet she’ll be asked to further clarify matters. Watch this space.

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