Curtis Sliwa’s checkered past catches up to him as calls for him to ditch NYC mayoral campaign hit crescendo

He’s far from an angel.

While Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa has been enjoying the limelight on the campaign trail, his colorful past is catching up to him.

Former independent mayoral candidate Jim Walden, who dropped his own long-shot campaign and backed ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s bid, rehashed a slew of scandals, allegations and sagas from Sliwa’s decades in Big Apple politics Monday.

Walden’s “opposition research” dump came as Republican nominee Sliwa continued to buck the crescendo of calls for him to ditch his mayoral bid in an effort to unite voters behind Cuomo’s independent campaign — and against far-left Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani.

“We need to unify to defeat @ZohranKMamdani,” Walden wrote on X. “For all the Curtis supporters likely to attack me, understand I am still trying to be gentle. I don’t enjoy this. But I am putting NYC first.”

The thread included pointing out that Sliwa’s red beret-wearing vigilante group allegedly lost its tax exempt status years ago, but was still soliciting donations on its website, a possible violation of federal law.

The thread continued to highlight parts of the feline-loving founder’s checkered history, including infamous hoax crimes Sliwa admitted he made up to get increased publicity for the Guardian Angels.

Sliwa admitted to the New York Times in 1992 that six of his group’s early “crimefighting” ventures were nothing more than stunts, including faking the rescue of a subway mugging “victim” who simply fell and lying about getting injured while fighting “several rapists” at a Brooklyn subway station.

Online IRS records show that the organization lost both its federal and state tax-exempt status in November 2022 due to an apparent failure to file federal tax forms since 2019.

Reached for comment by The Post, Sliwa’s campaign argued the discrepancy was due to faulty records handled by Rafael Alvarez, the group’s former treasurer who pleaded guilty last year to filing thousands of faulty tax returns totaling $145 million. 

“That’s old news. The Guardian Angels were defrauded years ago by a former accountant who didn’t file the paperwork. It’s all been corrected, the organizing is full up to date and in good standing,” Sliwa campaign spokesman Daniel Kurzyna said in a statement.

Beyond controversies tied to his crime-fighting group, Sliwa has also been accused of making antisemitic and sexist comments and has faced heat over his personal life, too, as recalled by Walden.

Resurfaced video shows Sliwa ranting about Orthodox Jews, stating that they are “able bodied men who study Torah and Talmud all day and we’re subsidizing them, and all they do is make babies like there is no tomorrow. And who is subsidizing them? We are!”

When the issue was raised during his failed 2021 mayoral bid against Eric Adams, Sliwa failed to disavow his comment, but offered to meet with Orthodox Jews to “resolve our differences.”

“Curtis apologized and met with Orthodox leaders long ago,” Kurzyna said, claiming that Sliwa has worked with Jewish communities, including in Crown Heights, for decades.

“While Cuomo was sipping wine at the Governor’s Mansion, Curtis was walking the streets keeping people safe,” he said.

But Sliwa has also landed himself in hot water over other controversial remarks about Jewish people.

While talking about antisemitism in an interview with an Israeli broadcaster, he said, “I’m a gentile, it’s in our DNA.”

Sliwa, who has two Jewish children with Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, later told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he “used the wrong term” and meant to say that antisemitism was often “fed into the minds” of non-Jews.

The four time married and self-declared “serial spouse” raised eyebrows over his love life, too.

His third wife Mary Paterson – who is currently married to ex-Gov. David Patterson – sued Sliwa for allegedly holding out on over $530,000 in unpaid child support for their special needs child, as mentioned in Walden’s thread.

The case has since been settled and Sliwa’s rep noted that it stemmed from a bitter divorce.

“Like any divorce, there are disagreements. Curtis loves his three boys and has always paid his fair share and more,” Kurzyna said.

“This is a private family issue that doesn’t belong in the press.”