Few jobs demand more public trust than speaking for the president of the United States. Katie Zacharia’s brief turn as President Donald Trump’s press secretary instead became a credibility debacle centered on whether she had misleadingly presented herself as a lawyer.

On Friday, the White House confirmed that Zacharia would no longer serve as press secretary. The announcement came only three days after her first and only media briefing, giving her a historically short tenure in one of the administration’s most visible positions.

Her removal followed criticism from pundits and ethics experts, as well as a less than friendly interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News. It also came after a California state bar ethics complaint challenged her use of the lawyer label despite her lack of a license to practice law.

The awkwardness deepened when Trump was asked Wednesday, in front of cameras, which state Zacharia had passed the bar examination in. Zacharia responded by saying she had moved to China, which did not answer the actual question about her legal credentials.

Zacharia graduated from Pepperdine University School of Law in 2011, but graduating from law school is not the same as becoming a licensed attorney. State bar authorities issue licenses only to applicants who satisfy examination and character requirements.

Bar examinations cover areas including criminal law, evidence, torts, property, constitutional law, contract law and professional responsibility. Applicants also undergo a background review for moral character intended to identify past events that could raise questions about their integrity as officers of the court.

After admission, lawyers must continue paying annual dues, meet any continuing legal education requirements and avoid legal misconduct. Those obligations are meant to help ensure that clients receive representation from people with the necessary training, ability and trustworthiness.

Campaign for Accountability, a nonprofit watchdog organization, filed the bar complaint against Zacharia. According to the complaint, she is not admitted to practice law in any U.S. state, including California, where she lived before her recent move to Washington, D.C.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Zacharia took the California bar examination after law school but did not pass. She later worked at a law firm in Beijing for two years, although China licenses only Chinese nationals to practice law, and a Chinese license would not authorize someone to practice in the United States.

California law makes it a misdemeanor for an unlicensed person to advertise or present themselves as “practicing law or entitled to practice law or otherwise practicing law who is not an active licensee of the State Bar.” Her Fox News appearances may have been misleading without necessarily satisfying that legal standard.

Zacharia told The New York Times that the controversy was a misunderstanding. She said Pepperdine’s president had personally advised her that she could call herself a “lawyer” on cable television as long as she avoided the terms “attorney” and “esquire.”

She also attempted to explain her China response by saying she thought she had been asked where she went after law school. That explanation did little to resolve the separate concern raised by the title listed on her LinkedIn profile.

According to that profile, Zacharia served from 2024 to 2025 as general counsel for Fix California, a conservative advocacy organization founded by former Trump administration official Richard Grenell. General counsel is typically an organization’s top lawyer, providing legal advice and accepting service of process on its behalf.

Using that title could lead recipients of official correspondence to assume that the person was licensed to practice law. Barbara McQuade, a former Michigan U.S. attorney and legal analyst, argues that presenting herself as general counsel appears to constitute holding herself out as entitled to practice law under California law.

Similar accusations have targeted Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Michigan, because he uses the title doctor despite never practicing medicine. Unlike Zacharia, El-Sayed graduated from medical school and earned a doctoral degree in public health from Oxford University in England, giving him the degree and title of doctor.

Zacharia’s press secretary position did not require a law degree, but her resume claims should have mattered for a White House role built around credibility. Trump voters may have accepted a president who lies, but that hardly makes another credibility problem in the briefing room harmless.