White House press secretary Katie Zacharia did not pass bar exam: Sources

Zacharia has described herself as a lawyer; Trump called her "an attorney."

Amid questions about her legal credentials, White House press secretary Katie Zacharia said in an interview Thursday that she took the bar exam, though she didn't explicitly say she passed it.

Zacharia did not pass the bar exam in the United States, two people with direct knowledge of the matter told ABC News.

Zacharia, who held her first White House press briefing earlier this week, has described herself as a lawyer and President Donald Trump called her "an attorney" in a social media post last week announcing her role in his administration.

There has been scrutiny over whether she passed the bar after Popular Information reported earlier this week that there was no evidence she was licensed to practice law. There was also a Wall Street Journal report saying that Zacharia sat for the bar in 2011 but did not pass.

Zacharia clarified in her interview out Thursday with Real America's Voice that she did take the bar exam after obtaining her law degree from Pepperdine University in 2011 -- stopping short of explicitly stating whether she passed the exam. She said the results of the bar exam were "somewhat inconsequential" because she knew she would be moving to China afterward where she worked in international transaction law.

"I'll take the bar and see what happens," Zacharia said of her mindset at the time. "The results are somewhat inconsequential because I knew I wouldn't need the bar in China, and -- and we left shortly thereafter. And after moving to China, I think-- I didn't -- I didn't really think much of the bar results or consider that something that I needed to focus on, and I was offered a job at a -- in an international practice division of a -- of a Chinese law firm."

Zacharia took the California bar exam after graduating from Pepperdine Caruso School of Law but did not pass, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The White House did not respond to questions to the press secretary's office about whether Zacharia passed the bar exam.

Zacharia noted that she consulted with people in the legal field and asked whether she could title herself as a lawyer, providing legal analysis, rather than an attorney at law providing legal advice.

"I consulted, for a very long time, many people in the field: 'Is it OK and acceptable if I label myself "lawyer," not "attorney at law," not "Katie Zacharia, Esquire," but "lawyer," and provide legal analysis, not legal advice?,' And they said 'absolutely, absolutely,' across the board.