White House Press Secretary Says She Failed Bar Exam Before Moving to China

Kevin Lamarque / REUTERS Katie Zacharia has finally come clean about her legal pedigree.

The new White House press secretary, 41, admitted in her first interview in the job that love made her flunk the bar exam—but she thought it was okay to keep calling herself a lawyer.

Zacharia broke down her legal background in an interview with Real America’s Voice on Thursday after being hounded by questions over her repeated claims of being a lawyer.

Hours before the interview, The Wall Street Journal reported that she took the California bar exam in 2011 but didn’t pass.

Crucial to the story, Zacharia explained, was her long-distance relationship with her husband Tyler.

He had been working for an American private equity firm in Beijing, China, while she was attending law school at Pepperdine University in California.

“I had already pre-registered to take the bar and I didn’t wanna withdraw from that.

And we knew we would be moving out to China,” she told Jack Posobiec, a right-wing conspiracy theorist turned conservative pundit.

“And I was obviously incredibly distracted and overwhelmed and excited for finally being married to someone who had been long-distance from for at least a year and a half, when you include the engagement,” she continued.

“And we just said, ‘Let’s take this time and I’ll take the bar and see what happens.’ The results are somewhat inconsequential because I knew I wouldn’t need the bar in China.

And we left shortly thereafter.” Zacharia moved to China in 2011 and lived there until 2013.

During that period, she worked as an associate on the international practice team for the elite law firm Zhong Lun, according to her LinkedIn page .

“After moving to China, I think I didn’t really think much of the bar results or consider that something that I needed to focus on,” she said, explaining that she worked for the English-language side of the law firm alongside a Chinese counterpart.

“There’s no Chinese bar.