Jeffrey Epstein’s controversial plea deal in Florida was even more lenient than initially believed — thanks to sheriff’s officials who allowed the convicted sex offender to return to his Palm Beach mansion for hours at a time.

Officials with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office approved Epstein leaving his office each day to return to his home in July 2009 while on a post-conviction work-release program, according to internal emails obtained by WPBF 25 News.

Logs show that deputies who were paid to oversee Epstein remained in his driveway for two to three hours while he was inside — leaving him free to allegedly continue sexually abusing young women.

Epstein was accused in a 53-page, 2007 federal indictment of grooming underage girls to have sex with him — but cut a wrist-slap deal that allowed him to plead guilty to a state charge of soliciting prostitution with one minor under the age of 18.

He was let off the hook in the federal case and served 13 months of an 18-month jail sentence during which he was permitted to leave the lockup for 12 hours a day, six days a week under a work-release program.

Two women, Katlyn Doe and Priscilla Doe, who filed suit against Epstein and his estate this week claimed they had sex with him while he was on work-release.

The sheriff’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment from WPBF.