Giuliani blasts Mamdani’s 9/11 toxic air blame as buried city records come to light

Records release renews debate over what New Yorkers were told about post-9/11 air

NEW YORK — A newly released collection of city records is renewing scrutiny over what New Yorkers were told about air quality and environmental hazards after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration has made public more than 170,000 pages of documents tied to the city’s response to the attacks and their aftermath. The first batch includes 68 boxes of Department of Environmental Protection records that officials said were not found until 2025, along with material related to 7 World Trade Center.

Mamdani said the records show that officials in more than one administration had information about dangerous conditions but did not give the public a complete account.

“I wish there was a limited number of people who misled the public that I could describe them in just a few names,” Mamdani said at a Tuesday news conference. “But the truth is that, as we have heard, this goes across a multitude of those that New Yorkers have trusted.”

Among the documents is a memo from the administration of then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani that was sent to Deputy Mayor Robert Harding. The memo warned that New York City could face lawsuits worth millions of dollars from residents who said health advisories did not protect them from toxic exposure and that cleanup work at the sites was insufficient.

Mamdani said the release is intended to give New Yorkers access to records that had been difficult to obtain for years. His administration said the city also settled two lawsuits brought by 9/11 Health Watch and created a public portal for the documents.

“People got sick because the leaders they trusted lied and told them they were safe to breathe in toxic air,” Mamdani said. “And then, when they began to contend with the symptoms of the illnesses that followed, the government that had not hesitated to send them into harm’s way was nowhere to be found.”

Giuliani’s spokesperson, Ted Goodman, rejected Mamdani’s accusations and said the mayor was blaming local officials while minimizing the role of the attackers who killed nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11.

“Now would be a good time to remind Mayor Mamdani that cowardly terrorists acting in the name of Islam are 100 percent responsible for all of the death and destruction on September 11, 2001, and for all of the suffering and illness that have continued since that day,” Goodman said.

Goodman also pointed to statements made after the attacks by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Then-EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman said in a Sept. 18, 2001, news release that air monitoring near the World Trade Center showed the air was safe to breathe. That came days after the agency first issued assurances about environmental conditions on Sept. 13.

“The EPA, a federal agency, issued press releases and public statements declaring that air samples showed the air quality near Ground Zero was safe,” Goodman said.

A later EPA Inspector General review concluded that the information available at the time did not fully support the agency’s broad assurances about air safety. Whitman later expressed regret in a 2016 interview, saying she was sorry for those who became ill or died and that she and the EPA had worked with the information they had.

The newly released city records also describe environmental hazards found in Lower Manhattan in the years after the attacks. They include asbestos detections at 15 John Street and other locations. Some readings were below applicable cleanup or exposure standards, while others appeared to be above them. Health authorities have said there is no known safe level of asbestos exposure.

Thousands of first responders, residents, workers and others who were at or near the World Trade Center site have since developed illnesses recognized by the World Trade Center Health Program as related to 9/11 exposure. The program continues to provide treatment and monitoring for people with certified 9/11-related conditions.

Former New York Gov. George Pataki, who was governor during the attacks, said this week that he has been diagnosed with restrictive airway disease, which he attributed to exposure to toxins at Ground Zero.

The records release comes as Mamdani faces calls from some relatives of 9/11 victims not to attend Friday’s memorial ceremony at Ground Zero. A petition with more than 100,000 signatures asks him to stay away.

Charles Wolf, whose wife was killed in the attacks, said Mamdani has not earned a place at the ceremony.

“This mayor is not serving us,” Wolf said. “He’s serving himself. We are asking respectfully that he not show up.”

Wolf said other public officials have stood with families over the years by supporting laws and assisting them after the attacks.

“Mayor Mamdani has not shown any of that, none of it,” he said.

Mamdani’s office said the current release is only the first step in making the city’s 9/11 records publicly accessible, with more documents expected to be added to the portal.