The 9/11 terrorist destruction of the World Trade Center and murder of 2,753 people and the resulting environmental health catastrophe that has taken thousands of more lives of responders and survivors was nearly a quarter century ago and four mayors, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Bloomberg, Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams, have all kept the city’s records out of public view.
Zohran Mamdani, who takes office in three days, must end this deception and order that all WTC files be published. Immediately. Twenty five years of a coverup over what city officials knew of the health hazards at Ground Zero and when they knew it is long enough.
The excuse offered by mayors and their top government lawyer, the corporation counsel, has been that the city wants protection from lawsuit liability should anyone sue. But that’s a phony issue.
Fearing such a possibility, the city’s total liability was capped by Congress right after 9/11 at $350 million. And so far not a cent has been paid because there probably isn’t anyone who can sue.
Anyone who was sickened or poisoned to death by the toxic plume that covered Downtown most certainly joined the Victim Compensation Fund, administered by the Department of Justice, which has paid out billions. But in order to join the VCF a claimant had to give up their right to take legal action.
Furthermore, the Congress also funded $999.9 million for the World Trade Center Captive Insurance Company in 2004. The WTC Captive, run by a city-appointed president who makes a whole lot of money, spent around $700 million in a large settlement before the VCF was reopened in 2011. But with the VCF now in business until 2090, there will be few, if any, future claims against the WTC Captive, which is still sitting on several hundred million dollars.
But even with these safeguards, City Hall has only stonewalled. A legally enforceable Freedom of Information Law request filed on Sept 8, 2023 at our urging for WTC documents held by City Hall and the city Law Department has still not been responded to, although the mayor’s office was just ordered to reply by Feb. 27.
Frustrated by this, the City Council used its Charter authority to direct the Department of Investigation to report on what the city knew about the WTC health risks. That report, by DOI Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber, is due in 18 months, provided DOI has sufficient funding.
Mamdani should keep Strauber on as DOI commissioner and give her enough money to get the WTC job done. Once DOI was ridiculed as the Department of Whitewash in covering up for the mayor, but this former federal prosecutor has been fully independent of City Hall. She joined the Manhattan U.S. attorney in 2024 in indicting Eric Adams on federal charges and also joined the Manhattan district attorney in indicting Adams’ closest aide, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, on state charges. And federal court records show that DOI is continuing to probe Adams.
There hasn’t been a more independent DOI commissioner than we can think of than Strauber. She will keep an honest watch over the new mayor and his administration.
As for the WTC records, Mamdani has yet to name a corporation counsel to run the Law Department. Whoever he picks (who must be confirmed by the Council) has to end the decades of obstruction and, along with Mamdani and Strauber, must show the world what is in the WTC files, all of them.
