This housing court battle is too damn weird.
Famed tenant-rights crusader and erstwhile mayoral candidate Jimmy McMillan won an 11th-hour reprieve from eviction last week in his four-year court battle with his landlord — and allowed The Post a rare glimpse inside the bizarre world of the “Rent Is Too Damn High!” guy.
The mustachioed McMillan has been fighting to keep the rent-stabilized, $872-a-month St. Mark’s Place one-bedroom he has had since 1977. His landlord, Lisco Holdings, alleges the 68-year-old activist really lives in Brooklyn and must get out of the Manhattan pad.
The Post got a first tour of the downtown pad, which features a sunken living room and exposed brick — and piles of clothes littering the floor.
They’re there for a reason, McMillan explained, in case he has to “get out in a hurry.”
Transcripts from a 2012 deposition truly reveal his wacky world.
When asked why bank-card records place him regularly in Kings County but show no activity in Manhattan, McMillan replied, “Where I use my card is not where I am. I use my card at places where I see children are hungry. I am not like you. People are poor where I go. They need to eat.”
He then offered a free meal to the attorney grilling him.
“I will take you to lunch when you finished with this,” McMillan told Stephen Shulman.
“That would be fine. I would appreciate it,” replied Shulman .
McMillan, who in 1993 was found by cops tied to a tree in a wooded area off the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in Brooklyn in what he said was a political attack, said he doesn’t broadcast his every location.
“As a private investigator, I can’t. I don’t have one place. I hide. I eat here. I camouflage my locations so nobody can follow me.”
But the lawyer contended that “an undercover investigator wouldn’t . . . use a debit card” because his whereabouts could be traced through bank records.
When Shulman asked how he paid for things, McMillan replied, “I pay for it. [If] I can’t — I just run out the door and tell them to catch me. I am a big guy.”
But he also relies on the generosity of others.
“I went downstairs to get the pizza. The guy gave it to me. He recognized me from being on TV. He just gave me this. They give me stuff,” he said.
Asked what he buys using his Veterans Administration benefits, McMillan declares: “On this case, because it involved the United States Army, I assert my Fifth Amendment privilege.”
“It’s not a criminal case,” Shulman answered.
Undeterred, McMillan declared, “I would like to assert my Fifth Amendment privilege.”
McMillan lost his bid to countersue Lisco in Brooklyn federal court and was supposed to be evicted Feb. 5, but got a weeklong stay. He owes more than $18,000 in rent, the landlord claims.
McMillan claims he tried to pay his rent, but Judge Laurie Lau refused to accept his payments and Lisco Holdings returned his checks.
McMillan insists there is a conflict of interest because lawyers from the landlord’s law firm sit on a committee to select Housing Court judges.
Additional reporting by Helayne Seidman