Special Counsel tells House Judiciary Committee he stands by prosecutions, cites evidence and rule of law

Special Counsel told the House Judiciary Committee on 2026-01-30 that he stands by his office’s decisions to bring charges in cases involving former President Trump, arguing the probes followed Justice Department policy and were grounded in evidence.

He opened by saying he appeared to correct "false and misleading narratives" about his work and to emphasize his nonpolitical, career-prosecutor credentials, noting he had "served as a career prosecutor in both Republican and Democratic administrations" for nearly three decades. He described his guiding principle as to "follow the facts and the law without fear or favor."

On the central allegations, he said, "President Trump was charged because the evidence established that he willfully broke the law," and added that grand juries in two separate districts returned indictments. He told the panel that, in his view, after losing the 2020 election the former president "engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results and prevent the lawful transfer of power."

The Special Counsel also said that, after leaving office, Trump "illegally kept classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago social club and repeatedly tried to obstruct justice to conceal his continued retention of those documents," and characterized some material as "highly sensitive national security information" stored in "a ballroom and a bathroom."

Addressing questions of motive, he said his decisions were made "without regard to President Trump's political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 election," and that if asked to prosecute on the same facts today he would do so regardless of party. "No one should be above the law," he told the committee.

He closed by defending career prosecutors and staff who worked on the matters and warning that the rule of law requires collective commitment: "The rule of law is not self executing. It depends on our collective commitment to apply it." The Special Counsel thanked the committee for the opportunity to appear.

The testimony consisted of a prepared statement; the transcript records assertions and characterizations made by the Special Counsel but does not include cross-examination or responses from other committee members in the provided excerpt. The committee's next procedural steps, if any, were not specified in the provided transcript.