New York City – Giuliani Jeerer: Raging Rudy Menaced Me

New York City – He says it was Rudy Giuliani who threatened to knock his block off — not the other way around.

Publisher and filmmaker John McCluskey — who was busted for harassing the ex-mayor in the Hamptons on Saturday — admits he has hated Giuliani since the 1980s, when, he says, the then-federal prosecutor harassed him with “phony” claims of misusing tax shelters.

McCluskey, 69, also accuses the former mayor of mishandling 9/11 and is producing a documentary film about it.

So when the two met by chance near The Golden Pear Cafe in tony Bridgehampton, it was perhaps only natural that sparks would fly.

“I simply informed Rudy of my contempt for his sleazy, bullying tactics for most of his prosecutorial life,” McCluskey said yesterday. “I pointed out he would gladly prosecute and persecute the innocent as well as the guilty if it gained him publicity.”

He also recalled saying the one-time presidential candidate would “prosecute and persecute” a cheese sandwich.

McCluskey said Giuliani, 64, “flew into a rage in the middle of the street, using the foulest of language, and threatened to kick my a… His wife [Judith] tried to calm him down, but he continued his rantings. “I told him I’d smack him upside the head if he tried it,” McCluskey recalled. “I said, ‘Take a pound. I’d love to see you in court about it.’ ”

Witnesses said McCluskey told Giuliani, “I’m gonna punch your lights out,” and began poking the ex-mayor in the chest.

“All right, do it then!” Giuliani bellowed.

Both men apparently wimped out. No blows were exchanged.

But Giuliani had McCluskey arrested on a harassment charge. He was freed on $100 bail and returns to court Friday.

McCluskey, of Wainscott, is the author of several books, including “The Complete Book of Wedding Toasts.” He owns Arden Communications, a book publisher, and Arden Films, a film-production company. He said Giuliani knows him from the ’80s case and the documentary. But a Giuliani spokeswoman said the ex-mayor, who has a home in Water Mill, had no idea who he was.

“The mayor said he [McCluskey] threatened to punch him in the face. They never touched each other,” she said.