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New York City is facing another lawsuit over its repeated refusal to release records about cancer-causing toxins that blanketed Ground Zero following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks — even as more than 81,000 survivors and first responders live with certified illnesses linked to that toxic exposure.
According to the New York Daily News, attorneys Andrew Carboy and Matthew McCauley filed the new lawsuit on Sunday, asking a judge to order the city to hand over documents requested under the Freedom of Information Law. The two attorneys represent families of 9/11 illness victims and the survivor advocacy group 9/11 Health Watch.
The suit targets both the mayor's office and the city's Law Department, which denied a 2023 FOIL request along with two follow-up appeals. The last appeal was rejected on Friday, March 20th by FOIL Appeals Officer Jeffrey Lowell, who claimed that searches "have not identified any records responsive to your requests under FOIL." Lowell also said the Law Department's records "are not maintained in a manner that allows it to search for records responsive to the request."
In response to the records request, the city pointed 9/11 Health Watch to publicly available federal reports and decades-old online links — a move that drew sharp criticism from advocates.
Carboy did not hold back in his legal filing. "With its ever-changing replies, the city plays three-card monte with Sept. 11 records," he wrote, adding that "city officials continue their grinding resistance" even as new leadership has pledged transparency. He called the latest denial a shameful effort to make "records of the most significant event in New York City history 'disappear.'"
The latest lawsuit follows a pattern that advocates say has repeated itself for nearly 25 years. As reported by SILive.com, a similar FOIL lawsuit filed against the city's Department of Environmental Protection last year eventually produced 68 boxes of documents — including a memo that directed all city agencies to send their 9/11-related records to the Law Department. That came after the city had insisted for years it had nothing to share.
Among the materials uncovered was the so-called "Harding memo," written roughly one month after the attacks. In it, city officials warned that thousands of first responders and survivors could be at risk from "toxic exposure" at Ground Zero. Carboy and McCauley were repeatedly denied access to that memo — and ultimately obtained a copy through the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin, where the estate of investigative journalist Wayne Barrett had donated his personal papers.
The denials came just weeks after incoming Corporation Counsel Steven Banks testified before City Hall and pledged to review all 9/11-related documents and "release or make available what can be made available."
Mayor Zohran Mamdani's office responded with a statement saying, "Transparency isn't optional, it's essential to any healthy democracy," and that the administration is working to address FOIL requests "in a timely and efficient manner."
The stakes of the dispute are significant. According to Crain's New York Business, more than 140,000 first responders and survivors are enrolled in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's World Trade Center Health Program, which provides 9/11-related health care benefits. Of that number, about 81,000 have certified conditions tied to Ground Zero toxins.
City administrations dating back to Mayor Rudolph Giuliani have refused to hand over documentation about what officials knew — and when — regarding the dangers at Ground Zero. On the day of the attacks, 343 FDNY members died in the collapse of the Twin Towers. Since then, an additional 400 members have died of 9/11-related illnesses.
Benjamin Chevat, executive director of 9/11 Health Watch, said he remains hopeful that Mayor Mamdani will act before September, when the city marks the 25th anniversary of the attacks. "Mayor Mamdani can still be the one, after 25 years, who answers the question: what did the city know about the hazards caused by the toxic chemicals at Ground Zero, and when did it know it?" Chevat said Sunday.
The lawsuit is now before a judge, who must decide whether to order the city to produce the records it says it cannot find.
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