Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani denied accusations that he concealed information about dangerous airborne toxins that remained in Lower Manhattan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, telling The Post that his administration followed federal health guidance.
In a new interview, Giuliani addressed questions about a recently opened city Department of Investigation probe examining what officials knew about toxic air and when they learned it, nearly 25 years ago.
“My administration posted everything,” Giuliani said, maintaining that City Hall relied on guidance from the US Environmental Protection Agency when parts of downtown reopened after terrorists hijacked planes and brought down the World Trade Center towers.
“EPA initially said everything was safe,” he said.
“I was at the end of my administration when 9/11 happened. I was told approximately 10 months after I left office that more information was known.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose administration recently agreed to release 170,000 records concerning air-quality fears at Ground Zero after the attacks, accused trusted leaders of misleading the public.
“People got sick because the leaders they trusted lied and told them they were safe to breathe in toxic air,” Mamdani said.
Giuliani, a frequent critic of his socialist successor, questioned whether a DOI investigation conducted under Mamdani would be impartial. Still, he said he would remain open-minded if the inquiry was genuinely focused on finding facts.
“DOI can question me — fine,” said Giuliani, who became known as “America’s Mayor” for his leadership after the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
“I’ll give it a chance.”
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Giuliani left office at the end of December 2001 and was succeeded by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who oversaw the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan south of Canal Street, including the World Trade Center site.
A 9/11 health advocate said city officials at the time appeared more concerned about potential liability from lawsuits than determining whether the air was actually free of toxins for residents.
“There was not a concern for the safety of the people in the neighborhood, the schools and the first responders,” said Benjamin Chevat, executive director of 9/11 Health Watch, which sued the city to obtain the long-hidden health records.
Chevat added that he was “not going to fault people for making mistakes” during the worst terrorist attack in US history.
But he cautioned, “It’s a little early for Mayor Giuliani to say he knew nothing.”
The DOI has hired outside attorneys to help determine what previous mayoral administrations knew about toxic dust at Ground Zero and what actions, if any, they took.
Because the investigative agency lacks enough staff for the extensive records review, it is contracting national law firm Epstein Becker & Green to assist with the inquiry.
“Services will include conducting an investigation to ascertain the knowledge possessed by mayoral administrations on environmental toxins produced by the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and to submit a report to the Council thereon,” the DOI said in a notice outlining the negotiated procurement.
The investigation was mandated by a City Council resolution approved in July 2025. The DOI was also awarded $3.8 million over two years to conduct the fact-finding effort.
Environmental activists have long alleged that city officials misled the public about the risks posed by toxic air following 9/11.
Mamdani agreed to release the previously secret records held by earlier administrations as part of a settlement with 9/11 Health Watch.
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