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.

“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.”

Former federal prosecutor Maurene Comey sent an email Thursday to her former colleagues one day after being fired from the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office, telling them that “fear is the tool of a tyrant.