Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s team is pushing back against Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s criticism of how city officials handled public information about air quality following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, as reported by Fox News.

The dispute comes as Mamdani’s administration has released more than 170,000 pages of city records concerning the government’s response to the attacks, including documents involving air quality, health concerns and the city’s environmental response.

The city says the release is the first phase of a greater effort and that additional records will be posted during the next year.

Gold. Upgraded. Buy real gold from $1. Store it in America. Sell it with one click.

The city also settled two lawsuits brought by 9/11 Health Watch as part of the records release. The fiscal year 2027 budget included more than $34 million for the creation and maintenance of the public records portal.

Among the records now available are documents from Giuliani’s administration, the so-called “68 boxes” of Department of Environmental Protection records that were not located until 2025, and records concerning 7 World Trade Center.

City officials said the records include information about the government’s response to environmental and health concerns after the attacks.

Mamdani has argued that the records show officials across multiple administrations had information concerning hazardous conditions but did not adequately communicate those concerns to the public.

This Could Be the Most Important Video Gun Owners Watch All Year

"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 also said, "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."

Ted Goodman, a spokesperson for Giuliani, rejected the suggestion that responsibility for the aftermath should be placed primarily on local officials who responded to the attack.

Goodman accused Mamdani of attempting to "score cheap partisan political points" while failing to emphasize the role of the terrorists responsible for the September 11 attacks.

"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.

Goodman also pointed to the federal government’s role in communicating information about air quality in the days following the attacks.

The Environmental Protection Agency issued public statements in September 2001 indicating that monitoring showed air quality near the World Trade Center was safe.

Then-EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman issued a September 18, 2001, statement saying air-monitoring results indicated that the air near the World Trade Center was safe to breathe.

Whitman later apologized for those assurances in a 2016 interview, saying she regretted the consequences for people who became ill or died and that the EPA had acted with the information available at the time.

An EPA Inspector General review subsequently concluded that the information available did not fully support the agency’s broad assurances about air safety.

"The EPA, a federal agency, issued press releases and public statements declaring that air samples showed the air quality near Ground Zero was safe," Goodman said, referring to Giuliani's response.

"The agency later apologized for those statements, saying it did the best it could with the knowledge available at the time."

The newly released city records contain additional information about environmental conditions found after the attacks, including records concerning asbestos at 15 John Street in Lower Manhattan and other locations.

The records indicate that asbestos was found at some locations at levels below applicable cleanup or exposure benchmarks and at other locations at levels that appeared to exceed them.

The broader health consequences of exposure following the attacks have been documented for decades.

New York City says its World Trade Center Health Registry currently tracks approximately 71,000 people who were exposed to the aftermath of 9/11.

Its research has examined respiratory illnesses, cancer, mental-health conditions and other long-term health concerns.

Former Republican New York Gov. George Pataki, who was governor when the attacks occurred, has also discussed his own health problems.

Pataki told the New York Post that he had been diagnosed with restrictive airway disease, which he attributed to his exposure at Ground Zero.

The release of the records comes as New York marks the 25th anniversary of the attacks.

It also follows a petition signed by more than 100,000 family members of 9/11 victims asking Mamdani not to attend Friday’s memorial ceremony at Ground Zero.

"This mayor is not serving us," Charles Wolf, who lost his wife on 9/11, said at a news conference.

"He's serving himself. We are asking respectfully that he not show up."

"Even though there is going to be other politicians there, these are the politicians that helped us push beneficial laws through and literally held our hand during that time," Wolf continued.

"Mayor Mamdani has not shown any of that, none of it. He just wants to be there because he wants to be there."

The Mamdani administration has said the current release is only the beginning.

The city plans to continue reviewing records and adding material to the portal over the coming 12 months, with personally identifiable information and certain security-sensitive material excluded from publication.

Gold is the oldest answer. SoundMoney makes owning it as easy as the apps you already use.

The opinions expressed by contributors and/or content partners are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of LifeZette. Contact us for guidelines on submitting your own commentary.