Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s team has responded to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s recent release of city records regarding toxic air exposure following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Giuliani’s spokesperson, Ted Goodman, accused Mamdani of seeking to "score cheap partisan political points" by directing blame at local officials while overlooking the responsibility of the terrorists who carried out the attacks.
The dispute centers on more than 170,000 pages of documents released by Mamdani’s administration, which include 68 boxes of records from the Department of Environmental Protection that were not located until 2025. These records document the city’s environmental response and include internal memoranda from the Giuliani administration warning of potential lawsuits related to health advisories and cleanup efforts.
What the Left Is Saying
Mayor Zohran Mamdani stated that the newly released documents demonstrate that officials across multiple administrations possessed information about hazardous conditions but failed to adequately inform the public. "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 during a news conference. "But the truth is that, as we have heard, this goes across a multitude of those that New Yorkers have trusted."
Mamdani argued that the release was intended to provide New Yorkers with access to records that had been difficult to obtain for years. He emphasized that the documents reveal a pattern where "leaders they trusted lied and told them they were safe to breathe in toxic air," contributing to illnesses among first responders and residents. The Mamdani administration noted that the city settled two lawsuits brought by 9/11 Health Watch as part of this transparency initiative and established a public portal for the documents.
What the Right Is Saying
Ted Goodman, a spokesperson for former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, rejected Mamdani’s framing of the issue. "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 in a statement. He argued that Mamdani was ignoring the primary cause of the tragedy in favor of partisan criticism.
Goodman also pointed to the role of the federal government in communicating about air quality after the attacks. He noted that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a federal agency, issued public assurances about conditions near Ground Zero. This perspective aligns with the stance that local officials acted in good faith based on available data, and that blame should be shared with federal authorities who issued the initial safety declarations.
What the Numbers Show
The released records include a memo sent to then-Deputy Mayor Robert Harding warning that the city faced potentially multimillion-dollar lawsuits from New Yorkers claiming health advisories failed to protect them. The documents detail environmental hazards found in the years following the attacks, including asbestos detected at 15 John Street in Lower Manhattan. While some locations showed asbestos levels below applicable cleanup benchmarks, others appeared to exceed them. Health authorities have stated there is no known safe level of asbestos exposure.
An EPA Inspector General review later concluded that the data available at the time did not fully support the agency’s broad assurances about air safety. On Sept. 18, 2001, then-EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman issued a press release stating that air monitoring results indicated the air near the World Trade Center was safe to breathe. Thousands of first responders, residents, and workers exposed to the site have since developed illnesses recognized by the World Trade Center Health Program. Former New York Gov. George Pataki, who served during the attacks, reported being diagnosed with restrictive airway disease, which he attributed to his exposure to toxins at Ground Zero.
The Bottom Line
The release of these records reignites a longstanding debate over the management of environmental hazards at the World Trade Center site and the communication of risks to the public. The dispute highlights the tension between holding local officials accountable for public health warnings and acknowledging the actions of federal agencies like the EPA. As the 25th anniversary of the attacks approaches, the political fallout continues, with both sides using the historical record to support their narratives regarding responsibility for the long-term health impacts on New Yorkers.