Apple’s Chief Executive Tim Cook said the European Commission’s decision to force Ireland to claw back €13 billion plus interest in illegal tax breaks from his company “has no basis in fact or in law,” and is “invalid” and “politically based,” in an interview with Ireland’s RTÉ Radio 1 Thursday.

“Ireland and Apple have acted not only in the law, but did what was right. I’m convinced that would be crystal clear to anyone looking at this from an unbiased point of view,” Cook said of the ruling, announced Tuesday by EU Competition Commissioner, Margrethe Vestager.

“It’s maddening, it’s disappointing, it’s clear that this comes from a political place, it has no basis in fact or in law,” he added. “When you’re accused of doing something that is so foreign to your values, it brings out an outrage in you, and that’s how we feel.”

When she announced her decision, Vestager said Apple paid an effective corporate tax rate of 0.005 percent in Ireland in 2014 and argued Apple had an unfair advantage over rivals.

Cook disputed that figure and the claim.

“It’s a false number, I have no idea where the number came from,” he said. “It is not true. In that year we paid $400 million to Ireland, and that amount of money was based on the statutory tax rate of 12.5 percent.”

He added: “There wasn’t a special deal between Ireland and Apple, it didn’t exist.”

Cook refused to say what Apple would do if Ireland decided not to appeal the Commission’s decision, saying only that he was confident the country would “do the right thing.”

“It’s clear, I believe, to the Irish government, it’s clear to us and it’s clear to the U.S. officials … there were no special deals,” he said. “It’s important that the government stands strong on that, because future investment from business really depends on a level of certainty … people need to know that the law will be upheld.”

Asked whether Ireland was still an attractive location for its European base, Cook said: “It has not been diminished one iota. We are completely committed to Ireland.”

In a separate interview with the Irish Independent published Thursday, Cook called the ruling “political crap” and said it may have been motivated by anti-U.S. bias.

“I think that Apple was targeted here,” he said, Reuters reported. “And I think that [anti-U.S. sentiment] is one reason why we could have been targeted…. I think it’s a desire to reallocate taxes that should be paid in the U.S. to the EU.”