New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has ordered the public release of over 170,000 pages of documents concerning public health and contamination data compiled in the months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
In a Tuesday press conference, three days before the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Mr. Mamdani said the documents would reveal new details about “what the city knew about the toxic air around ground zero, when they knew it and how they acted to limit liability.
“As the years pass and the human toll grows, we reckon with the cost of September 11th whenever another New Yorker is stolen from us too soon. Now, close to 25 years later, more people have died from 9/11-related illnesses than were killed on the day itself.”
The Mamdani administration launched a public document portal to settle two freedom of information lawsuits brought by advocacy groups like 9/11 Health Watch.
The newly unsealed files suggest that city officials in 2001 and 2002 intentionally withheld the true severity of toxins and asbestos in Lower Manhattan. One 2002 cleanup memo explicitly advised avoiding the word “risk” to maintain “public confidence.”
“For too long, information about the aftermath of September 11th has not been provided to the public. For years, families, city workers, and survivors have been crying out for more transparency from their government,” the site reads. “That is why the Mamdani administration has made a significant investment to give the public access to information and documents related to City government’s response to the September 11th attacks — documents that were never previously made available to the public.”
Some of the files were among 68 boxes stored in a city office and discovered last year.
Backed by a $34 million budget allocation, a yearlong rolling release of millions more documents will follow this first batch of pages.
The historic transparency move comes amid the issue surrounding Mr. Mamdani’s attendance at Friday’s remembrance ceremony.
A Change.org petition demanding his exclusion from the 25th-anniversary event crossed 100,000 signatures.
Critics and family members cite Mr. Mamdani’s past political stances, associations with anti-war figures, and the fact that he’s Muslim as the country looks back at a day of Islamic slaughter of almost 3,000 lives.
Mr. Mamdani dismissed the calls to step aside, confirming he will proudly stand alongside first responders and survivors on Friday. New York Democrats, including Gov. Kathy Hochul and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, have publicly supported his right to attend.
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