After a scandal-tainted process to pick a new head of Mexico’s Supreme Court, the country’s president has congratulated the winner.

On Monday, a majority of Mexico’s Supreme Court justices picked their colleague Norma Piña to head the body for the next four years. She’ll be the first woman to do so in the court’s nearly two centuries of existence.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Tuesday that he had congratulated Piña on what he described as a historic achievement.

But he also again decried the serious accusations of plagiarism against Justice Yasmin Esquivel made in the leadup to the decision, downplaying their significance and suggesting they were part of an effort to undermine her candidacy.