“With all due respect, Senator, I don’t think this is an appropriate setting for me to discuss [this issue],” Holder replied during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing when Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., asked if the executive branch was conducting surveillance that would give “unique leverage” over lawmakers. Kirk replied that “the correct answer would be no, we stayed within our lane, and we did not spy on Members of Congress.” Holder assured Kirk that “there is no intention to do anything of that nature — that is, to spy on Members of Congress or to spy on the Supreme Court.”