Trump’s new press secretary defends ‘lawyer’ title

Washington - President Donald Trump's latest press secretary, Katie Zacharia, has come under fire for using the title "lawyer" despite not having passed the US bar exam. Appointed by Trump, Zacharia has been described as a lawyer in various public appearances and listed as the general counsel of a conservative nonprofit in California.

However, there is no evidence to suggest that she has ever passed the bar exam, which is required to practice law in the US after obtaining a law degree. When asked about her legal credentials during a recent interview with a conservative media outlet, Zacharia claimed she had registered to take the bar exam but never took it due to distractions and plans to move to China.

She stated that she never needed a bar license to practice law in China and left shortly after her registration. Upon returning to the US, Zacharia worked as a lawyer at a major law firm in Beijing, where she gave birth to her first child. She argued that she was allowed to label herself a lawyer, not an attorney at law, because she had a law degree and experience in business law in China.

The Campaign for Accountability, a political ethics organization, has called for the California Bar Association to launch an investigation into Zacharia's use of the lawyer title without a license. In California, falsely labeling oneself as a lawyer without a license is considered a crime, according to the organization.