Attorney General Eric Holder appeared before Congress on Wednesday amidst controversy over government spying on the Associated Press. The Justice Department has admitted to seizing the work, home and cellphone records of almost 100 AP reporters and editors. The action came as part of a probe into the leaks behind an AP story about how U.S. intelligence thwarted a Yemen-based al-Qaeda bombing plot on a U.S.-bound airplane. Speaking to the House Judiciary Committee, Holder continued to maintain the subpoena was not his decision after having recused himself from the case last year.

Attorney General Eric Holder: “The decision to issue this subpoena was made by the people who are presently involved in the case. The matter is being supervised by the deputy attorney general. I am not familiar with the reasons why the subpoena was constructed in the way that it was, because I’m simply not a part of the case.”

Holder went on to confirm the official who signed off on the monitoring was his direct subordinate and longtime friend, Deputy Attorney General James Cole. Asked for his views on a hypothetical scenario in which hundreds of journalists’ phone records are subpoenaed, Holder said he could not rule it out.