A top prosecutor investigating Russian ties to President Trump’s campaign heaped praise on then-acting Attorney General Sally Yates for refusing to defend Trump’s first travel ban, a newly released email revealed Tuesday.

Andrew Weissmann sent Yates the email, obtained and posted online by the conservative Judicial Watch foundation, shortly after she was fired by Trump on Jan. 30.

“I am so proud,” Weissmann wrote in the email’s subject line.

In the body of his message, Weissmann added: “And in awe. Thank you so much. All my deepest respects, Andrew Weissmann.”

The disclosure of Weissmann’s email, first reported by Fox News, comes amid controversy over revelations that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s former lead FBI investigator, Peter Strzok, was ousted in August for sending anti-Trump text messages to his reported mistress, who also served on Mueller’s team.

Weissmann is among Mueller’s key lieutenants, and is the lead prosecutor in Mueller’s $18 million money-laundering case against former Trump campaign manager Paul Manfort.

Weissmann was chief of the Fraud Section of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division when he sent Yates the email from his DOJ account to hers at 9:50 a.m., about 35 minutes after the White House announced Yates had been canned.

Reports this past weekend revealed that Strzok was demoted to the FBI’s Human Resources Division for exchanging anti-Trump text messages to a co-worker, identified by the Washington Post as FBI lawyer Lisa Page, with whom Strzok was reportedly having an extramarital affair.

Page was also part of Mueller’s team but reportedly left two weeks before officials learned of the messages.