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BUCKNACKT'S SORDID TAWDRY BLOG We should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive & well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate, bier or wein in hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WHOO-HOO, WHAT A RIDE!!!!!!"
16 October 2026
MOTHER JONES DAILY: One organizer's fight against voter suppression in the South, How Rep. Max Miller and His Lawyer Try to Silence Foes, Cornell can do a lot more than pause frat parties, The EPA is about to hand oil and gas companies a huge methane-related gift, Trump claims the economy is alright. The numbers tell a different story., The “Charlie Kirk of Abortion” is being sued over a pill stunt caught by our cameras, Voter suppression is happening in the South. This organizer fights it. 14OKT26
VERSE AND VOICE FROM SOJOURNERS 15OKT26
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Trump’s New Press Secretary: Not-Quite Attorney at Law & Watchdog asks California bar to probe Katie Zacharia's lawyer claims 14&15OKT26
THE confusion about fascist fotze trunt kkktie zacharia's legal credentials is not due to a big misunderstanding, it is because of lies and deception by zacharia and the usual dishonesty, deception and corruption of the drumpf/trump-vance administration. Thankfully congress will have the ability to stop much of the damage this administration and the gop / greed over people-republican party is inflicting on our democratic Republic after the upcoming Midterm Elections on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2026. These from the New York Times and UPI.....
Trump’s New Press Secretary: Not-Quite Attorney at Law
Reporting from Washington
Is President Trump’s new press secretary a lawyer — or did she just play one on TV?
Three days into her job, Katie Zacharia is facing questions about whether she has embroidered her credentials. She describes herself as a lawyer, and the president called her “an attorney.” When she was asked on Tuesday in which state she passed the bar exam, she twice replied, “When I moved to China.”
Huh?
The moment capped off a shaky debut for the woman who has accepted what is perhaps the most challenging public relations post in the United States. Now she was struggling to tell her own story.
On Wednesday evening, she told The New York Times that this whole mishegas over “lawyer,” “attorney,” and “China,” has been one big misunderstanding.
“I assumed the question was, ‘Where were you after law school?’” she said, taking a quick phone call on the tarmac in Arizona, where the president was holding a midterm rally.
“That’s all I could hear over the sound of Marine One,” she said. “And, wanting to respect protocol, the distance behind the president, kept me from moving closer to hear the question.”
It was only her second day on the job, she pointed out.
So here’s the truth about Katie Zacharia, not-quite attorney-at-law: She graduated with a law degree from Pepperdine University in 2011. By some interpretations, that technically makes her a lawyer, though many legal experts said it would not. But is she an attorney, someone who is licensed to practice law and give legal advice? For that, she would have needed to pass the bar. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that she sat for the California bar exam after graduating law school, but didn’t pass. The Times was unable to find a law license for her in California, or anywhere else she has lived in the United States.
During the brief phone call Wednesday, The Times did not get a chance to press her again about whether she had ever passed a bar exam. But before she had to go, she did explain that when she first began appearing on cable news, she consulted with Pepperdine’s president as to how she should identify herself. She said she was warned not to use the words “attorney” or “esquire,” but that “lawyer” was OK.
But what about “general counsel,” would that be OK? Because, on LinkedIn, Ms. Zacharia identified herself as such for Fix California, a group led by Trump loyalist Richard Grenell.
“You can’t be a general counsel to a company in the United States unless you’re admitted to the bar to practice law,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley. “A general counsel implies that you’re practicing law, giving legal advice to the company. You can’t practice law without a license.”
On Wednesday, a watchdog group filed a complaint with the State Bar of California, calling for an investigation into whether Ms. Zacharia “repeatedly held herself out to the public as entitled to practice law without a license to do so, conduct California law treats as a crime.”
And that brings us to China.
The White House explained this week that Ms. Zacharia moved to China with her husband, Tyler, who had a job at a U.S. private equity firm. While there, she worked on “international transaction law,” Ms. Zacharia has claimed.
On her LinkedIn profile, she listed nearly two years of employment at Zhong Lun Law Firm, which is one of China’s biggest law firms, with headquarters in Beijing and offices in Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Almaty, Kazakhstan.
The law firm did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Opportunities for foreign lawyers in China are extremely narrow. Foreign nationals cannot sit for China’s bar exam, hold a Chinese lawyer’s license or advise on Chinese law. They can, however, be hired by Chinese law firms to work on cross-border deals and to advise on foreign or international law.
Gary Gao, a partner at Zhong Lun who is based in Shanghai, said the firm often hired foreigners for language assistance and to help Chinese staff understand foreign business culture.
“They are not practicing Chinese law at any time,” he said, adding that Ms. Zacharia’s role at the firm would have likely been similar to a paid internship.
Sida Liu, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong who specializes in mainland law, said that it is misleading for Ms. Zacharia to describe herself as a former associate at Zhong Lun, because it implies that she was a licensed lawyer in China.
“Chinese law firms can hire foreign nationals to work in their mainland offices, but such individuals are not classified as P.R.C. lawyers because P.R.C. lawyer qualification requires P.R.C. citizenship,” Mr. Liu said, referring to the People’s Republic of China. “The title ‘associate’ may therefore be somewhat controversial.”
So what are we to make of all this?
It was Mr. Trump who called Ms. Zacharia an “attorney,” and she certainly never corrected the record. She called herself “general counsel,” which was misleading at best.
Reporting was contributed by Kitty Bennett in Washington and David Pierson in Hong Kong.
Shawn McCreesh is a White House reporter for The Times covering the Trump administration.
The Latest on the Trump Administration
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Disappearing Women: In Trump’s second term, those heading for the exits from his administration, voluntarily or involuntarily, are female officials.
National Guard in D.C.: After thousands of troops deployed by the president have patrolled Washington for more than a year, a federal appeals court interrogated whether the deployment could continue indefinitely.
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Ilhan Omar’s Home Searched: Federal agents executed a search warrant at the home of Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and the Justice Department issued subpoenas to some relatives as officials scour her family’s history for evidence of fraud and false statements in immigration paperwork, according to people familiar with the matter.
Watchdog asks California bar to probe Katie Zacharia's lawyer claims
Oct. 15 (UPI) -- A nonpartisan government watchdog has filed a complaint with the State Bar of California requesting an investigation into newly appointed White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia following reports that she is not licensed to practice law in the state.
Zacharia, a resident of California who has repeatedly referred to herself as a lawyer, held her first briefing as White House press secretary on Tuesday amid reports that the Pepperdine Caruso School of Law graduate may not have passed the bar in California or in any other state. Asked Tuesday where she passed the bar, she told reporters outside the White House, "When I moved to China."
Campaign for Accountability filed its complaint with the State Bar of California on Wednesday, saying if it is accurate that she is not licensed to practice law in the state, she may be breaking California law by publicly claiming she is entitled to practice law while being unlicensed.
"Ms. Zacharia has represented herself as a lawyer repeatedly to buttress her reputation and credibility as a television commentator and now as the White House spokesperson, yet it seems it was all a lie," CfA Executive Director Michelle Kuppersmith said in a statement.
"In California, calling yourself a lawyer without a license isn't puffery; it's a crime. The State Bar should investigate whether Ms. Zacharia has misled the public about her credentials and hold her accountable if she has."
Holding oneself as entitled to practice law without being licensed is a misdemeanor offense in California, punishable by up to a year in jail or a fine of up to $1,000, or both.
The watchdog's filing includes several instances of Zacharia calling herself a lawyer and claiming to have worked as one for the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation. She also claims on her LinkedIn profile to have been general counsel for the right-wing Fix California nonprofit organization.
The complaint asks the State Bar of California to investigate whether Zacharia's employment with Fix California constituted the unauthorized practice of law and to refer violations to the Ventura County District Attorney for possible prosecution.
"The rules against unlicensed lawyering exist to protect the public," Kuppersmith said.
"To be meaningful, the rules must apply to people with the biggest megaphones, not just to those with no platform."
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung lashed out at CfA over the complaint with insults, calling the nonpartisan group "a radical leftist-organization run by rabid numbskulls suffering from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome."
"Nobody takes them seriously because they are deranged low lifes," he said on X.
UPI has contacted the California State Bar for comment.