NY- Embattled New York Post gossip writer Jared Paul Stern has come out swinging against the billionaire he’s been accused of trying to extort $220,000 from in return for favorable coverage on the powerful gossip page.

Stern told ABC News, “I was the one who was targeted,” claiming he was “set up” by supermarket magnate Ron Burkle.

Stern said that Burkle contacted him last summer through a mutual friend in an effort to reduce the number of negative items appearing about him on Page Six.

On a videotape recorded by Burkle’s security cameras and partially transcribed in The New York Daily News, Stern is reportedly heard describing working with the Post’s Page Six as a “little like the mafia … a friend of yours is a friend of mine.”

In a statement issued Sunday, Burkle’s spokesman, Michael Sitrick, said that, “Mr. Stern’s re-characterization of events are just that.

“As to what occurred in the meetings between Messrs. Burkle and Stern,” the statement added, “the tapes are very clear as to what Mr. Stern said and what he didn’t say. They are also clear with respect to what Mr. Stern meant.”

Stern has retained Joseph Tacopina, the high-profile defense attorney who represents former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik and Joran van der Sloot, the Dutch teen believed to be the last person to see Alabama teen Natalee Holloway alive on the island of Aruba last spring.

In a telephone interview with ABC News’ senior legal correspondent Chris Cuomo, Stern previewed his defense. He promised a “strong statement setting forth the true nature of the relationship and my feelings about being the one who was targeted.”

Stern repeated to ABC News his claim that his “main interest” in Burkle was as an investor in Stern’s clothing line, Skull & Bones. Burkle’s spokesman flatly denied that Burkle was interested in the clothing line.

In an effort to support Stern’s case, a source close to Stern provided an e-mail dated July 25, 2005, to ABC News, in which a Burkle employee offered to buy 60 shirts worth $5,700 from Stern’s line. It is unclear who the shirts were for.

Stern said Burkle initially contacted him in the summer of 2005, through a mutual friend, to initiate discussions on how to “fix [Burkle’s] Page Six problems.”

Conversations between Burkle and Stern were recorded by security cameras in Burkle’s rented New York loft at least twice, and those tapes have been turned over to the FBI, which is investigating, sources told ABC News. An FBI spokesperson declined to comment, but sources said the government is reviewing the tapes to determine whether a case against Stern could be made.

According to Sitrick’s statement, “After both the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s office viewed tapes of the meetings and all of the e-mails (including wire transfer instructions) in their entirety, the U.S. Attorney’s office contacted the N.Y. Post and requested a meeting to ask for The Post’s cooperation in its probe and help in preserving evidence. We believe these actions speak for themselves.”

A source involved in the taping insists that two FBI agents and an assistant U.S. attorney were present, in the room, during the entire March 31 encounter. Despite that, law enforcement sources point out that the way the tapes were made could pose problems with any future prosecution.

In the latest excerpts from the tapes made by Burkle and first reported by New York Daily News staffer William Sherman, Stern and Burkle apparently refer to longtime Page Six editor Richard Johnson and other reporters working for the column, according to the Daily News report.

“I can solve these issues for you,” Stern asserts during their March 31 meeting, according to Sherman’s report.

“You gave me ideas yesterday,” Burkle replies, according to a Daily News transcript. “You tell me I have to pay Richard Johnson $100,000 to be something somewhere. …”

“Yeah, a consultant say to, you know, your media companies, for instance,” Stern says.

“Well, like Current TV, I have Current TV,” Burkle counters.

“Yeah, okay,” Stern says. “Yeah, that is something we should definitely do and we should start to work on something sooner rather than later.”

At another point in the Daily News transcript, Burkle asks, “So I get to choose today whether I want to be a friend or do I want to be an enemy?” Stern replies, “Right, um.”

“And if I choose to be a friend I need to pay you, and if I choose to be an enemy, you just write things?” Burkle says.

“Yeah, I mean, we can still be friends, but we’re not going to be as good friends,” Stern says.

Later, according to the Daily News transcript, Stern allegedly tells Burkle that he has influence over Johnson.

“Richard [Johnson] is not going to do anything to go after you from that point,” Stern says. “He is not going to do it. I have worked with him for 11 years and, um, if I ask him not to do it, he won’t do it.”

New York Post officials have said that the paper’s relationship with Stern is limited, but it goes back a long time. Stern has been working with Johnson on the column for more than a decade, and former Page Six staffers tell ABC News he has been a regular fixture on Page Six for many years, often editing the page in Johnson’s absence.

Gary Ginsberg, an executive vice president at News Corporation, which owns the Post, reportedly called Stern a part-time employee.

“No one’s trying to make any excuses for his alleged behavior, but in terms of what it means for the franchise, I think the franchise is as strong as any in journalism,” Ginsberg told The New York Times. “This is highly aberrational.”