New Trump press secretary dogged by questions about her own claims

[0:00] okay this is what it looked like yesterday when donald trump arrived in wasilla alaska aboard [0:05] marine one you can see two marines open the doors of the helicopter to reveal donald trump [0:10] sitting with two women his close personality natalie harp and his new white house press [0:15] secretary katie zechari and if you're wondering which is which just come a little closer to your [0:20] screen if needed come up zoom in zechari is the one on the left harp is the one on the right yes [0:26] they look very similar katie zechari had joined the president on his trip to alaska just minutes [0:31] after giving her first briefing which lasted only 14 minutes and featured questions from just three [0:36] reporters all from right-wing outlets which is a real bummer because there are a lot of questions [0:41] she could be answering right now like for instance the questions about her history of conspiracy-laced [0:46] social media posts cnn actually recently dug into her social media accounts to find she has promoted [0:51] numerous baseless conspiracy theories everything from pizzagate conspiracies about a secret cabal of [0:57] pedophile cannibals to more niche conspiracies like one suggesting that the obama secretly killed [1:03] comedian joe in universe that's quite a conspiracy sure would be nice to hear katie answer questions [1:08] about all of that wouldn't it be she could also be answering questions about the president's war on [1:13] the press and how the administration plans to respond after a judge ruled that they cannot bar this [1:18] network and two other outlets from the white house grounds but maybe the most pressing thing katie [1:24] zechariah should be answering questions about turns out is her own work history because thanks to some [1:30] incredible reporting from independent journalist judd legum we learned yesterday that katie zechariah has [1:36] repeatedly presented herself as a lawyer despite not being licensed to practice law in any of the states [1:43] where she has worked her linkedin page has even claims she served as the general counsel to a conservative [1:49] non-profit called fix california which was founded by former trump official rick grinnell i would note [1:55] like in many states it is a crime in california to present yourself as an attorney when you are not [1:59] legally licensed to practice in the state and today an independent watchdog group filed a formal complaint [2:05] with the state bar of california asking authorities to investigate whether zechariah may have committed a [2:11] crime now i should tell you that we reached out to both rick grinnell and his non-profit with a series of [2:17] very straightforward questions about zechariah's employment and you can see them on your screen [2:22] here those are our questions we asked a total of five questions which coincidentally i promise you [2:28] also happens to be the number of questions katie zechariah has answered publicly since becoming [2:33] the press secretary we have not heard back which will not shock you now right now the only responses we [2:39] have are the ones coming from the white house all of which conveniently dodge the question of whether [2:43] katie zechariah is in fact a lawyer and if so where she passed the bar exam not a heart i mean it's [2:50] just 50 states everybody today we got another one of those statements from white house communications [2:55] director steven chung who's always charming accusing the group who filed the complaint against zechariah [3:00] of having trump derangement syndrome of course that's the favorite talking point in response the ever [3:07] dogged independent journalist judd legum followed up with a simple question so is katie zechariah a lawyer [3:14] and if so where is she or has she been admitted to practice again very straightforward questions [3:20] joining me now is the reporter who broke the story judd legum whose newsletter popular information [3:25] is an indispensable source of independent journalism worth subscribing to reporting on this and a lot of [3:30] other stories um judd thank you so much for being here thanks for having me um let me start by asking you [3:35] this i mean you've been digging into katie zechariah's claims to be a long a lawyer longer than anyone [3:41] else i think everybody who talked about this yesterday nearly cited you and your reporting [3:46] help us understand big picture what do we know and we don't know right now well we know that for [3:51] the last several years and also this was something trump talked about when he made the announcement [3:56] katie zechariah has been credentialing herself as an attorney it's one of the things that trump [4:01] talked about it's one of the things she's talked about repeatedly as she's been a pundit on fox news [4:07] and newsmax and a lot of these other places um and she's made not only that general claim that she's a [4:14] lawyer but as she as you noted she's made some specific claims about her work as general counsel and [4:22] her she's also talked about working as outside counsel to the world bank uh while she was in china in [4:30] uh 2011 to 2013. so she's made some specific claims too and you know based on my reporting and [4:37] now i'm very confident because there's been a lot of other people who've done the same thing that i [4:41] spent the weekend doing which is looking at all the different states uh she has not passed the bar in [4:48] any state and so she is not despite all of these general and specific claims a lawyer and so that seems [4:58] like an issue now a lot of people have been you've kicked this off a lot of people have been reporting [5:03] on this this just broke this story not that long ago um where on wednesday evening katie zechariah [5:10] told the new york times that the whole mishigas over a lawyer attorney in china has been one big [5:15] misunderstanding she said i assume the question was where were you after law school she said taking a [5:20] quick phone call on the tarmac in arizona that's all i could hear over the sound of marine one and wanting [5:26] to respect protocol the distance behind the president that's not a thing kept me from moving [5:30] closer to hear the question but they still according to the story which i was just scanning here did not [5:36] find evidence nor have you that she has in fact passed the bar exam yes and she said she has said [5:45] specifically that she was practicing law while in china she said specifically that she's the was the [5:52] outside counsel to the world bank now i've tried to talk to some of these places the world bank uh [5:58] rick grinnell i also was trying to text him today i can't get any information here call us if you hear [6:04] anything i'm going to be very interested because i cannot get through to rick grinnell but what did she [6:10] do because neither answer is great she was either practicing law which was unauthorized that's why she [6:17] has this bar complaint against her or she was not practicing law in which raises the question of [6:24] well why was she saying she was the general counsel of a non-profit which is a position for a lawyer i [6:30] mean so i had norm eisen on last night and he basically said is this true in california a lot [6:35] of places if you're practicing law and you don't you're not credentialed to practice law that is breaking [6:40] the law what happens what do you make of this complaint what do you think it means for her well i think [6:46] it's there's a couple of things that are going on there's in california it's not only practicing [6:51] law but it's holding yourself out yeah as an attorney so saying that you are an attorney so the question [6:57] is does this rise to something that would be legally prosecuted it's not something that's prosecuted [7:04] very often i think where she could get into more trouble is this issue of where she was said she was [7:11] general counsel because that goes beyond just her appearing on a media program her appearing on a [7:17] show and saying i'm a lawyer as she did many many times i mean i taught i probably gave three or four [7:22] examples in my newsletter i could have given four dozen examples to my newsletter i mean it was constant [7:27] i am a lawyer i don't think you can find as many clips of me on tv talking about that i'm a lawyer as as [7:35] her um but what was she doing there for this group was she really practicing law that is something that [7:44] i could see be prosecuted because that is something that not only california but every state takes very [7:52] seriously hey it's rachel i am so glad to see you at the end of that clip because this is where i get to [7:56] tell you about a new way to watch all our clips and all of our shows and everything on ms now on your phone [8:04] or your tablet or your laptop you can watch things live or recorded plus you can ask me and all the [8:09] other hosts and 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