‘Partisan hackery’: Pepperdine alums blast Katie Zacharia’s Trump appointment

Katie Zacharia, President Donald Trump’s newest press secretary, is having a bumpy first week on the job. 

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The Pepperdine University alumna struggled to read her notes during her first White House news conference on Tuesday and accidentally called her husband the president, which she managed to laugh off. The news conference lasted around 15 minutes.

And then off the podium, Zacharia’s habit of presenting herself as a lawyer has also come under scrutiny.

Zacharia graduated from the Pepperdine Caruso School of Law in 2011 with a doctor of law degree, according to her LinkedIn, and has been identified as an “attorney” on multiple Fox News appearances. But SFGATE and other news outlets have been unable to find evidence of her passing the bar in any state. 

The Campaign for Accountability, a watchdog group, filed a complaint with the California State Bar on Wednesday, alleging that she broke the law by repeatedly referring to herself as a lawyer, even though she is not licensed to practice law.

White House spokesperson Steven Cheung called the organization a “leftist” group without denying the group’s claim.

The White House did not respond when asked by SFGATE if Zacharia has ever been a licensed attorney and instead shared a prepared statement.

“I practiced international transaction law, with all the appropriate credentials,” Zacharia said in the statement shared by the White House. 

Her new role has also stirred up mixed emotions from lawyers from her alma mater. A LinkedIn post from the university celebrating the role received dozens of angry comments, as well as some words of support. Pepperdine is considered one of the nation’s more conservative schools, according to the Princeton Review. 

Wiley Nickel, a former state senator and congressman from North Carolina who graduated from Pepperdine University in 2005, told SFGATE in a phone call that he was “very disappointed to see Pepperdine engaging in partisan hackery for Donald Trump.”

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“The law school should be celebrating lawyers who graduate from the law school and are able to practice law, and by all accounts, Ms. Zacharia was either too stupid to pass the bar or never even bothered to try,” Nickel said.

When a journalist asked Trump on Tuesday to clarify where she passed the bar exam, Zacharia responded that she passed the exam “when I moved to China.” She did not elaborate further, based on C-SPAN footage of the exchange.

That detail could be in reference to the nearly two years listed on her LinkedIn profile that she worked as an associate at the Beijing office of the Zhong Lun Law Firm, which has offices in China, California and New York. A partner at the law firm did not return SFGATE’s request for comment.

SFGATE did not find any record of Zacharia passing the bar exam in California, Washington, D.C., or in Texas, all states where Zacharia has worked in some capacity, according to her Linkedin.

Many of her other roles since graduating from law school are related to media and assistant work. Zacharia’s LinkedIn lists her as a senior communications advisor at both Truth Social, the president’s social media company, and the Trump Media & Technology Group since June. The profile also says she is currently a board member of Pepperdine University’s Dean’s Council, a seat she has held for eight years. The profile also includes a two-month stint ending in March as the deputy assistant secretary to public affairs for the Department of Homeland Security. Zacaharia and her husband, who is a California-based film producer, purchased a home in Thousand Oaks, the tony neighborhood in Ventura County, in 2021 for $2.1 million, according to the complaint filed by the watchdog group.

Paul Caron, the dean of the Caruso School of Law, did not respond to SFGATE’s request for comment.

Zacaharia’s online resume also shows that she works as general counsel for Fix California, a nonprofit with the aim of registering more voters and improving election integrity. KQED reported that, in 2024, the group was sending out deceptive texts to voters who were already registered to vote. Fix California did not respond to SFGATE’s request for comment.