Harold C. “Hal” Turner, the Internet radio shock jock and ex-FBI informant, gave a judge and prosecutors a taste of his signature incendiary commentary Tuesday before he was sentenced to 33 months in prison for threatening three federal appeals court judges.

The ultra right-wing talk show host and blogger, once popular with white supremacists, protested his innocence and blasted U.S. District Judge Donald E. Walter and the Chicago-based assistant U.S. attorneys who prosecuted him for manipulating the legal system to finally win a conviction after three trials.

“The charge against me was a lie from the beginning, and the verdict was invalid because it was based on fraud,” declared Turner, 48, of North Bergen, dressed in a dark grey prison jump suit

In a rambling, nearly hour-long diatribe, Turner accused the judge of “legal skullduggery” for changing the legal definition of a threat and ignoring more than 40 years of Supreme Court case law on freedom of speech and advocating violence.

“The truth is I didn’t threaten anyone,” Turner proclaimed in Brooklyn federal court, suggesting his trial may go down in history as “the first Bolshevik show trial” in the United States.

He said the case is already historic as he is “the first editor of a legitimate American media outlet to be jailed for an editorial since 1798.”

Turner charged the case against him “was driven by political correctness,” propelled by “corrupt” Chicago politics “and enabled by a thin-skinned judiciary whose arrogance is only exceeded by its treachery.”

He reminded the court that “absolutely nothing happened” as a result of his Internet post, “and yet this government has put me in prison and wants to keep me there for many more years.”

Turner has spent more than eight months behind bars since his arrest in June 2009, time that will count toward his sentence. He was found guilty Aug. 13 of using his blog to terrorize a panel of judges from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for upholding handgun bans in Chicago and Oak Park, Ill.

In the Web posting, Turner branded judges Richard Posner, William Bauer and Frank Easterbrook traitors and wrote they “deserve to be killed” for their ruling to send a message to the entire judiciary that judges must “obey the Constitution or die.”

Turner was tried in Brooklyn instead of Chicago to avoid potential conflicts of interest. His first two trials in mistrials after jurors could not agree on a verdict.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane McArthur urged Judge Walter to impose a six-year sentence, the maximum for threatening an assault on a judge, arguing that Turner used violent words to instill fear in the judges and posted their photos, court address and a map on his website.

“This is beyond opinion … beyond commentary. He wanted to threaten and intimidate these judges” by trying to incite an audience made up of dangerous extremists, she said. The judges testified they feared for their lives, she said.

Turner maintained the posting was nothing more than protected political speech.

“My spin is always an intentionally extreme point of view,” Turner said. It attracted listeners, advertisers and the money that comes with them, he said.

Turner acknowledged that some of his comments were “disgusting,” but he said he “filled a niche market” by appealing to people with extremist views.

Turner said the FBI knew he wasn’t an anti-Semitic, homophobic, hatemongering bigot and regarded him as valuable anti-terrorism asset.

Recruited in 2003, Turner recounted his role as FBI confidential source, gathering information on extremist groups at rallies and passing along threats such as a group attack on the White House and a possible mortar attack targeting then president-elect Barack Obama.

“I bagged more murderers as an FBI source” than most law enforcement officers do in their entire careers, he said.

He professed his love for the United States and his belief that he made the country safer.

Prosecutors, he said, lied to jurors at each of his trials by portraying him as a “domestic terrorist,” a high-ranking member of the Aryan Nations and a mafia boss who could order his followers to harm the judges.

With guidance from the FBI, Turner said he honed his understanding of the limits of protected speech.

“I advocated violence against those three judges but did so in a context that did not lend itself to imminent lawlessness,” Tuner said, referring to standards in one Supreme Court case.

Turner berated the Judge Walter for concealing from the most recent jury the fact that the Supreme Court ultimately ruled that “I was right and 7th Circuit got it wrong in the case that begot my editorial.”

He said Walter was also dead wrong to withhold from all three juries a so-called blanket letter of declination, purportedly written by federal prosecutors in New Jersey, declining to prosecute Turner for his violent rhetoric because he had been trained by the FBI.

Referring to his voluminous FBI file, Turner said periodic reviews showed he never broke the law, though he did eventually make the FBI brass so “uncomfortable” that they terminated his services in 2007.

Turner choked up at several points during the hearing, saying he hoped to one day apologize to a judge for poking fun at the murders of her mother and husband. He sobbed briefly when he said, “I honestly don’t believe I broke the law.”

Turner asked the judge to sentence him to probation and vowed that he would never cause trouble again if he was allowed to return home to his wife and son.

The judge did not respond to any of the criticisms or elaborate on the reason for his sentence, but he did urge Turner to appeal the sentence.

After his release from prison, the judge said, Turner will be barred from participating in Internet or satellite radio programming for three years.

His attorney, Ronald G. Russo, said an appeal will be filed.

E-mail: sampson@northjersey.com