New York City officials have released thousands of unseen documents on the air quality at Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks. The documents reveal more evidence that concerns about the air persisted for months after the attacks, despite officials assuring the public the area was safe. New York Times reporter Sally Goldenberg joins "The…
Page A2From§Eachthe early evening edition — 8 September 2026
THE RECORD
Officials demanding proof of Mamdani's 9/11 sincerity spent months lying to responders about the air
“They spent weeks demanding Mamdani prove he loved the dead before he stood at a podium, and the commissioner who ran the department during the actual lying about the air didn't have to pass that test himself. City Hall lied to firefighters for months, people got sick, and now those same voices are grading somebody else's sincerity. Open the 170,000 pages and you can see exactly whose story doesn't survive a records request.”
“Look, I'm not saying the air-quality story isn't real — okay, the mayor's saying that, with 170,000 pages, but Commissioner Von Essen's point is about respect, about who you stand next to at a signing ceremony, and that's a separate issue from whether the air was safe back then, which, again, I'm not confirming was really a thing. Did I just concede the entire air-quality story to defend a seating chart? That's not what I meant — next question.”
The receipts
Former FDNY Commissioner Tom Von Essen urged Mayor Zohran Mamdani to skip the 25th anniversary 9/11 ceremony, saying he'll offend families who lost loved ones in the terrorist attacks.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) on Tuesday released records related to the city government’s response to worsened air quality after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, saying city leaders “lied” about how safe it was to breathe.
President Trump has long sought to position himself close to the Sept. 11 recovery effort and has made a series of questionable and provocative statements to burnish his political brand.
NY Post readers discuss demands by Rudy Giuliani and others for Mayor Mamdani to avoid the 9/11 ceremonies.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said that New Yorkers had gotten sick “because the leaders they trusted lied.” On Tuesday, he released 170,000 pages of records related to the aftermath of the attacks.
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.