A challenger to Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance called out the prosecutor on Tuesday for his kid-glove treatment of convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, following the multimillionaire financier’s arrest on charges he “sexually exploited and abused” dozens of underage girls.

“It’s long past time for District Attorney Vance to end his silence and explain why his office went to court to reduce the sex offender status of Jeffrey Epstein,” said New York Law School professor Alvin Bragg, a Democrat who has already announced he’s taking on Vance in 2021.

During a 2011 sex offender registry hearing, Vance’s office inexplicably argued to downgrade Epstein — who was required to register in 2008 under a sweetheart non-prosecution plea deal in Miami involving one underage victim — from level 3 to the less-restrictive level 1 status, despite a detailed state assessment obtained by The Post that deemed Epstein highly dangerous and likely to prey again.

“Why did the DA’s office ignore a confidential state assessment that deemed Epstein to be highly dangerous? Which lawyers for Mr. Epstein approached the office to have his offender status reduced?” Bragg raged in a statement.

“It’s not enough to send a spokesman out to say ‘our prosecutor made a mistake’ in a case of this seriousness and magnitude. Manhattan residents deserve to hear from the DA himself on how this egregious decision was made.”

Epstein, 66, was arrested Saturday for allegedly paying underage girls hundreds of dollars for nude “massages” at his Manhattan and Palm Beach homes that would become “increasingly sexual in nature.”

Vance has a history of going easy on high-profile pervs.

His office let disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein off the hook after the producer admittedly groped a model in 2015 — and it was later revealed that Vance had received $26,550 in campaign donations from Weinstein’s lawyer, with some of the dough coming after the investigation was dropped.

Vance’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.