President Donald Trump touted Katie Zacharia as an attorney when he announced last week that she would be the new White House press secretary. But when scrutiny about her legal credentials arose Tuesday, she and the White House evaded questions.

Earlier Tuesday, independent journalist Judd Legum pointed out that Zacharia did not appear to be licensed to practice law in any U.S. state and that there’s no evidence of her ever passing a state bar exam — despite her repeatedly identifying herself as a lawyer in media appearances.

When reporters pressed her and Trump to say where she’d passed the bar exam — a requirement to become an attorney — a smiling Zacharia replied: “When I moved to China.”

Q: You said Zacharia is an attorney. Where did she pass the bar exam? What state?ZACHARIA: When I moved to China pic.twitter.com/LUAk4Vhqgp

It’s possible Zacharia misheard the reporter. But when HuffPost reached out to the White House with the same question, we couldn’t get a straight answer.

“Katie moved to China with her husband after graduating because of his job at an American private equity firm while she worked on international transaction law,” a White House official said, even though HuffPost never asked about her time in China.

A follow-up email asking, again, where Zacharia was barred went unanswered.

Zacharia’s LinkedIn page says she attended Pepperdine University’s Caruso School of Law, which recognized her as an alumna and congratulated her on the new position. She is also a board member on the school’s Dean’s Council.

Legal positions listed on her LinkedIn profile include an associate role at Zhong Lun Law Firm in Beijing from 2011 to 2013 and general counsel at Fix California, a right-wing political action group.

Scrutiny around Zacharia’s professional history came the same day she stumbled through her first press conference, which was widely panned. The press secretary spent most of her time at the podium taking softball questions and praising Trump.

“What I hope to do in this position is to take that into an official capacity and only build on, only amplify, and only multiply to the extent possible, all of the wins [Trump’s] making for Americans,” she said when Fox News’ White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked how she views her role.

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