BEAUMONT — New White House press secretary Katie Zacharia was asked where she passed the bar exam. Her answer — “When I move to China” — gave former Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan an opening to bring the conversation home.
“I represent China, Texas. I am willing to check and see if she is licensed to practice law here — perhaps that is the confusion,” Phelan wrote on X Tuesday, Oct. 13.
Phelan was responding to a post by Washington Post reporter Scott Nover about Zacharia’s legal credentials.
The exchange that prompted it happened on the White House South Lawn. As President Donald Trump and Zacharia spoke with reporters before leaving for Alaska, a reporter asked where she had passed the bar exam. Trump turned to Zacharia, who replied: “When I moved to China.”
On Wednesday, Zacharia told The New York Times she had misheard the question. She said she thought reporters were asking where she went after law school, and that she answered, “I moved to China.”
FILE – Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan presides over the House at the Capitol in Austin on Tuesday May 23, 2023. (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP, File)
That China reference drew attention because Zacharia has called herself a lawyer, and Trump described her as an attorney when he announced her appointment. But reporting by The Associated Press and Reuters found no public evidence she is licensed to practice law in the United States. The State Bar of California said it has no record of her being licensed there under either her married or maiden name.
Phelan’s post also carried a local twist: He represents China, Texas, a city in Jefferson County.
The Beaumont Republican has represented House District 21 since 2015 and served as speaker of the Texas House from 2021 to 2025. The district includes parts of Jefferson County and all of Orange and Jasper counties. Phelan is a real estate developer with his family’s commercial real estate firm, according to his official legislative biography.
His political career has had its ups and downs. In 2024, Phelan was forced into a Republican primary runoff against David Covey after neither candidate won a majority in the March primary. Phelan held onto his seat by 366 votes, according to KFDM’s election-night report.
Later that year, amid a fight over who would lead the House, Phelan withdrew from the speaker’s race. In August 2025, he announced he would not seek another term in the Legislature.
WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 13: White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia speaks during a news briefing in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House on October 13, 2026 in Washington, DC. Zacharia, a conservative commentator and former communications adviser for Trump Media, took questions from reporters in her first media briefing as the new White House press secretary. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Zacharia’s legal background
Zacharia earned a bachelor’s degree from Pepperdine University in 2007 and a law degree from Pepperdine Caruso School of Law in 2011. A law degree alone does not establish that someone is licensed to practice law, according to the Associated Press.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Zacharia took the California bar exam after law school and did not pass, citing a person with direct knowledge. Reuters said it found no record showing she is registered as an attorney or member of the bar in any U.S. state or Washington, D.C.
Zacharia worked at a law firm in Beijing from 2011 to 2013 and later served as general counsel for Fix California from 2024 to 2025, according to her LinkedIn profile. Asked about her credentials, she said: “I practiced international transaction law, with all the appropriate credentials.” The White House has not publicly identified where she may have passed a bar exam or provided evidence of a U.S. law license.
A watchdog group has asked the State Bar of California to investigate whether Zacharia misrepresented herself as a lawyer. The complaint is a request for an investigation, not a finding of wrongdoing.