(A)Political - October 17th

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Katie Zacharia is out after four days and one briefing, the shortest stint in U.S. history for the White House Press Secretary role. The Justice Department argued the post-Watergate records law is unconstitutional in every application. Trump waived nearly all of the Russia sanctions law he signed a month ago, days before it was to take effect.

• Katie Zacharia Is Out as White House Press Secretary After One Briefing

• Justice Department Tells Appeals Court the Presidential Records Act Is Unconstitutional

• A Month After Signing It 86-11, Trump Waived Nearly All of the Russia Sanctions Law

Katie Zacharia Is Out as White House Press Secretary After One Briefing

_{By: Atlas}

Katie Zacharia, 41, is leaving her job as White House press secretary after less than a week, two White House officials told Reuters on Friday, Oct. 16. She gave one briefing and spent most of the week answering questions about whether she had misrepresented herself as a lawyer.

Accounts of her exit differ. The two officials told Reuters she had been “let go,” a senior administration official told NBC News she was moving to a new role to be announced later, and a White House official told AFP “Can confirm” when asked about a Fox News report that she was “transitioning out.”

Trump said he would let her decide

President Donald Trump spoke to reporters on the South Lawn on Friday before leaving for Georgia. He said the press had treated her “pretty nastily.”

“I said to her, honestly, if I were you, I’d reconsider. You think about it, but I would reconsider,” Trump said. Asked whether he would keep her, he said, “I’m going to let her make that decision,” NBC News reported.

Trump stopped taking questions at 12:17 p.m. CT, the White House pool reported. At 12:37 p.m. CT, Axios reported, citing two senior administration officials, that she had been ousted. NBC News followed at 1:07 p.m. CT.

In a post on X Friday evening, Zacharia called Trump “kind, wonderful, gracious” and wrote, “It was an honor to work for him,” Axios reported.

From a phone call to the exit

Zacharia told Reuters she received a call about the job on Oct. 7. Trump announced her selection in a Truth Social post on Friday, Oct. 9, calling her “a distinguished Graduate of Pepperdine University, and the Pepperdine Caruso School of Law, an attorney,” as quoted by CBS News.

She started on Monday, Oct. 12.

Her first briefing, on Tuesday, Oct. 13, lasted less than 15 minutes, according to NBC News and AFP. CBS News reported that she read prepared remarks for about 10 minutes and then took questions from three outlets: Breitbart, Fox News and the Daily Mail.

She made news once. Asked whether Trump would fire Kimberly Guilfoyle, the U.S. ambassador to Greece, over misconduct allegations, Zacharia said he had asked her to resign. Guilfoyle, who has denied the allegations, announced her resignation within hours, NBC News reported.

NBC News also reported that Zacharia could not say whether the United States had stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine.

Questions about her legal credentials

On Thursday, Oct. 15, in an interview with commentator Jack Posobiec, Zacharia confirmed she had never passed the bar. The Wall Street Journal had reported that she failed the California bar exam in 2011 and had not passed the bar in any other state where she has lived, CBS News reported.

She said she took the exam while preparing to marry and move to China for her husband’s work. “The results are somewhat inconsequential because I knew I wouldn’t need the bar in China,” she said, The Hill reported.

“I was very careful how I executed this. I never came across as someone who was an attorney at law,” she said, according to CBS News.

The word “attorney” in the Oct. 9 announcement was Trump’s. CNN, as cited by CBS News, reported that Zacharia had shared at least 15 social media posts over two years identifying herself as an attorney.

Pepperdine confirmed her law degree to CBS News. Her LinkedIn profile lists her as an associate on the international practice team at Zhong Lun Law Firm in Beijing from 2011 to 2013, and later as general counsel for Fix California. She has said she “practiced international transaction law, with all the appropriate credentials,” PBS NewsHour reported. Legal experts told NBC News that only Chinese citizens can sit for China’s bar exam.

A complaint and the California law it cites

Rick Coca, a State Bar of California spokesperson, said the bar had no record of her being licensed in the state, PBS NewsHour reported. On Wednesday, Oct. 14, the Campaign for Accountability, a watchdog group, filed a complaint asking the State Bar to investigate. “In California, calling yourself a lawyer without a license isn’t puffery; it’s a crime,” the group’s executive director, Michelle Kuppersmith, said in a statement.

Section 6126 of the California Business and Professions Code makes it a misdemeanor for “any person advertising or holding himself or herself out as practicing or entitled to practice law or otherwise practicing law” without an active State Bar license. It carries up to a year in county jail, a fine of up to $1,000, or both. Section 6125 says, “No person shall practice law in California unless the person is an active licensee of the State Bar.”

White House communications director Steven Cheung called the group “a radical leftist-organization” on X, according to CBS News.

No quick pick for a successor

Her tenure was shorter than Scaramucci’s, counted at 10 or 11 days. Anthony Scaramucci served as communications director in Trump’s first term; Reuters and The Washington Post count 10 days, NBC News and AFP 11. “Records are made to be broken,” Scaramucci wrote on X Friday. “But I take no pleasure in other people’s pain.”

Trump told Fox News by phone Friday that he was in no rush to name a new press secretary, Reuters reported.

Zacharia’s predecessor, Karoline Leavitt, left on Aug. 27 to spend more time with her young children. The post stayed empty until Zacharia started on Oct. 12. It is vacant again, with the midterm elections set for Nov. 3.

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