Former Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) condemned his corruption case as a “political prosecution” and pointed to President Donald Trump’s legal battles as evidence of a corrupt justice system after being sentenced to 11 years in prison on Wednesday.

“President Trump was right,” Menendez said outside the New York federal courthouse. “This process is political, and it’s corrupted to the core. I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores the integrity to the system.”

The New Jersey Democrat was convicted last year of accepting bribes in exchange for political favors. He resigned from the Senate soon after, though his downfall began earlier when he was forced to relinquish his influential position as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee following the public disclosure of the charges against him.

A New York jury found that the former senator accepted extravagant bribes from three businessmen and acted as an agent of Egypt in return for using his political influence. Menendez is the first public official in U.S. history to be convicted of acting as a foreign agent while in office, The Hill reported.

“You were successful, powerful, you stood at the apex of our political system,” U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein said while handing down Menendez’s sentence, according to The Associated Press. ”Somewhere along the way, and I don’t know when it was, you lost your way and working for the public good became working for your good.”

Menendez’s remarks come at a time when Trump’s Justice Department is seeking to halt criminal prosecutions of his political allies. This includes a former Republican lawmaker, individuals involved in the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack, and Trump’s co-defendants in his federal classified documents case, The Hill continued.