Giuliani blasts Mamdanis 9/11 toxic air blame as buried city records come to light

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's team is firing back at Mayor Zohran Mamdani after Mamdani accused past city officials of misleading New Yorkers about toxic air following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Giuliani spokesperson Ted Goodman accused Mamdani of seeking to "score cheap partisan political points" by directing blame toward local officials who rushed to the scene of the attacks while overlooking the radical Islamic terrorists responsible for killing nearly 3,000 people.

"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 to Fox News Digital.

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The records released by Mamdanis administration include more than 170,000 pages documenting the citys response to the Sept. 11 attacks and their aftermath. The initial release includes 68 boxes of records from the Department of Environmental Protection that were not located until 2025, and records related to 7 World Trade Center.

The records include documents from Giulianis administration, including a memo sent to Deputy Mayor Robert Harding that warned the city faced potentially multimillion-dollar lawsuits from New Yorkers who claimed health advisories failed to protect them from toxic exposure and that the sites were inadequately cleaned up.

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At a news conference announcing the release, Mamdani said the documents showed that officials across multiple administrations had 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 Tuesday news conference. "But the truth is that, as we have heard, this goes across a multitude of those that New Yorkers have trusted, and we are here to release these documents today because, for a long time, New Yorkers have known the truth, and yet they have been unable to see the truth in any document that's been presented to them."

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

"People got sick because the leaders they trusted lied and told them they were safe to breathe in toxic air. 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," Mamdani said.

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Thousands of first responders, residents, workers and others exposed to 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 suffering from certified 9/11-related conditions.

Former Republican New York Gov.

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