Maurene Comey, the Manhattan sex crimes prosecutor fired by President Donald Trump’s Justice Department — who went further than any of her peers in holding notorious sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein and his convicted madame Ghislaine Maxwell to account — warned her longtime colleagues Thursday of a dark new era in which “fear is the tool of a tyrant.

Maurene Comey, the Manhattan federal prosecutor who was fired from the US attorney’s office this week, has prosecuted a number of high-profile cases and followed in her father’s, James Comey, footsteps with her work at the Southern District of New York.

“If a career prosecutor can be fired without reason, fear may seep into the decisions of those who remain,” Comey said in the note, which was obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday. “Do not let that happen. Fear is the tool of a tyrant, wielded to suppress independent thought.”