Don't blame me. Blame Rudy!
So says the publisher and filmmaker who was arrested this weekend on harassment charges after he got into a shouting match with former Mayor Rudy Giuliani outside a tony Bridgehampton cafe.
"I didn't threaten him with violence. He threatened me with violence," John McCluskey told the Daily News. "He told me he'd beat me up, and I told him I'd smack him in the head if he did. It's that simple."
McCluskey, 69, admitted to reporters that he told Rudy what he thought of him when he ran into him near The Golden Pear Cafe on Saturday. As a federal prosecutor in the Eighties, Giuliani harassed him on phony tax charges, McCluskey said.
"I simply informed Rudy of my contempt for his sleazy, bullying tactics for most of his prosecutorial life," McCluskey told the New York Post. "I pointed out he would gladly prosecute and persecute the innocent as well as the guilty if it gained him publicity."
"I told him what I thought of him, which is my right," McCluskey told the News." "He tortured me for two years in his role as a prosecutor."
The 69-year-old McCluskey says that Ragin' Rudy, who himself is 64, threatened him.
Giuliani "flew into a rage in the middle of the street, using the foulest of language, and threatened to kick my ass. 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 told the Post. "I said, 'Take a pound. I'd love to see you in court about it.' "
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No blows were exchanged but McCluskey, who witnesses said threatened the mayor and poked him in the chest, was arrested on harassment charges. He was freed on $100 bail and has a scheduled court appearance on Friday.
McCluskey, who owns Arden Films and Arden Communications, said he was working on a documentary about how the mayor bungled the response to 9/11.
"He also knows I'm on to him on 9/11," McCluskey told the News. "His reaction was that he would have me arrested to discredit me."
