A social media firestorm erupted Tuesday after news spread that Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell – serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking – was granted clearance to leave her lock-up on work release.

“Ghislaine Maxwell out on work release is a sickening thought,” wrote X user “Rogue POTUS Staff,” who has nearly 500,000 followers and runs the Substack blog “Americans Anonymous.”

Maxwell was arrested in 2020 for sex trafficking related to Epstein, the disgraced financier who died in 2019 awaiting trial and who was alleged to have maintained a ‘client list’ of powerful figures for blackmail purposes.

Maxwell has been the subject of countless reports in recent weeks after the Trump administration, struggling to quell outrage over its handling of files related to Epstein, transferred the British socialite to a low-security prison in Texas.

And, according to documents obtained by podcast host Allison Gill, she is also eligible to leave the prison regularly on work release.

“She now gets to leave the prison!” wrote Doug Wahl on X, a self-proclaimed supporter of the Democratic Party with more than 63,000 followers. “Just 24 hours after talking tough on crime, the Trump administration is now giving Ghislaine Maxwell permission to leave her low-security prison for ‘work assignments.’ Does this sound like justice to you?”

Other users noted how similar Maxwell’s work release arrangement was to that of Epstein’s when he was first imprisoned back in 2006.

Despite the FBI having identified at least 40 potential minor victims of Epstein in the mid-2000s, the agency’s investigation was closed after Alexander Acosta, then a federal prosecutor in Florida, granted Epstein a deal that saw him plead guilty to just one count of prostitution and be sentenced to just 18 months in prison, and be allowed to leave prison on work release for up to 12 hours a day.

Dubbed “completely unprecedented” by critics, Acosta said he offered Epstein the generous plea deal because he had been told Epstein “belonged to intelligence,” that the matter was “above his paygrade” and that he should “leave it alone.” He never identified who told him to back off further prosecuting Epstein.

“Trump is soft on pedophiles!”

wrote

Dede Watson, a social media consultant and strategist with more than 100,000 followers on X. “Ghislaine Maxwell (is) being granted (the) privilege of leaving minimum security prison for “work assignments”. Release the unredacted Epstein files.”