When President Trump plucked Katie Zacharia from obscurity and appointed her as his new press secretary, he called her “an attorney.”
This is also how Zacharia, repeatedly and publicly, describes herself. “I’m a lawyer,” Zacharia said during an appearance on the Greg Kelly Show on October 5, 2026. “[A]s a lawyer, the procedural steps are absolutely critical,” Zacharia opined during the August 31, 2026, edition of Fox & Friends First. “I’m a lawyer, I went to Pepperdine, Pepperdine Law,” Zacharia said on the “In Front of Us” podcast on August 14, 2026. “[A]s a lawyer, there’s a big difference between answering something under oath and answering something to the media,” Zacharia explained on CNN on February 7, 2026. There are many more examples.
Zacharia was also identified on screen as a lawyer during at least 18 appearances on Fox News since March 2025.
Yet, there is no evidence that Zacharia ever passed a bar exam or has been admitted to practice law in any state. She is not listed as a member of the State Bar of California, the state where she lives. According to her LinkedIn account, she worked as “General Counsel” for a nonprofit in the state called Fix California. Zacharia is also not listed as a member of the State Bar of Texas or as a member of the D.C. Bar, two other places where she worked.
Popular Information searched for evidence in all 50 states, plus D.C., that Zacharia was admitted to practice law anywhere — and found none.
On Sunday, Popular Information emailed White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly with detailed questions about Zacharia’s professional history, including whether she was ever admitted to practice law in any state. Popular Information received the following response from a general White House Press Office email account: “Refer you to the President’s TRUTH on Katie.” That is the social media post that calls Zacharia an attorney.
A lawyer, by definition, is “an individual who is authorized to practice law.” Merely holding a J.D. degree, as Zacharia does, does not authorize her to practice law. To become a lawyer, she would need to be admitted to a bar, which in most cases involves passing a bar exam.
This is not an academic distinction. In California, where Zacharia says she was employed as “General Counsel” to a nonprofit, holding yourself out as a lawyer when you are not admitted to the state bar (or otherwise authorized to practice) is a crime. According to the law, any person “holding himself or herself out as practicing or entitled to practice law or otherwise practicing law who is not an active licensee of the State Bar, or otherwise authorized pursuant to statute or court rule to practice law… is guilty of a misdemeanor.”
Zacharia’s conflicting accounts of her work as “General Counsel” in California
Zacharia’s current LinkedIn page claims that she worked full-time as “General Counsel” to Fix California, a right-wing nonprofit founded by Trump ally Ric Grenell, from January 2024 to March 2025. A general counsel is an organization’s chief legal officer, who represents the organization as an attorney.
It is unclear, exactly, what work Zacharia did as General Counsel for Fix California. If she was engaged in the practice of law, which is typical work for a general counsel, without being an attorney, she would have violated state law. If she did not perform any legal work, why was she claiming to be the organization’s General Counsel?
While her LinkedIn page claims her work as General Counsel at Fix California ended in March 2025, she continued to publicly claim the position long after. In September 2025, Zacharia changed her X bio to “Fox News & Newsmax Analyst General Counsel to Fix California | Lawyer | Political Strategist | Former OPA,” according to an archive of her account. She dropped the General Counsel title from her X bio in November 2025 but put it back in April 2026. An archive of Zacharia’s X bio on May 1, 2026 says: “Fox News, CNN, Newsmax, & OANN et al. Commentator | General Counsel, Fix California | Lawyer | Fmr. Department of Homeland Security Spokeswoman | Sicilian.”
The title remained in her X bio until July 2026.
Over the years, Zacharia has also claimed a number of other roles with Fix California, including Senior Advisor and Chief Administrative Officer. According to Fix California’s IRS filings, Zacharia was never paid a salary. In 2024, she was paid $27,367 as a commission on her fundraising efforts. (The organization has not yet filed its 2025 report with the IRS.)
Zacharia’s conflicting accounts of her legal work in China
After graduating from law school in 2011, Zacharia moved to China, where she worked at Zhong Lun, a large Chinese law firm. It is quite plausible for a law school graduate who is not admitted to practice law in any state to work for a firm in China, since the work may not involve American courts.
But Zacharia has claimed that, while in China, she served as “outside counsel” to both the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). “I was the outside counsel to the IFC and the World Bank,” Zacharia said on the Buck Sexton Show on February 28, 2025. “It was an interesting and exciting experience.” She repeated this description of her work many times, and it was included in her biography for the California Globe, where she was a columnist.
The World Bank and the IFC employing a recent law school graduate with little to no experience as “outside counsel” is less plausible. Indeed, Zacharia’s description of her work while in China has varied. A June 2026 press release announcing Zacharia’s appointment to NovaRed, a mineral exploration company, describes something far narrower: work on “matters involving organizations associated with” the World Bank Group and the IFC.
I have to hand it to this administration. I didn't believe they could come up with someone whose qualifications are as questionable as Pete Hegseth's, but they came through in the clutch.
More outstanding work, Judd. Thank you.