{"id":179163,"date":"2026-03-29T22:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T22:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/179163\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T22:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T22:17:08","slug":"nyc-denies-another-request-for-info-on-9-11-toxins-prompting-new-lawsuit-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/179163\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC denies another request for info on 9\/11 toxins, prompting new lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 New York City has denied another request for data about the toxins that swirled above Ground Zero after 9\/11 \u2014 claiming nothing could be found \u2014 despite the discovery of 68 boxes worth of information on the subject just four months ago, the Daily News has learned.<\/p>\n

Advocates for 9\/11 survivors are again suing for the data, claiming city officials are playing hide and seek with people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith its ever-changing replies, the city plays three-card monte with Sept. 11 records,\u201d attorney Andrew Carboy said about the stream of Freedom of Information Law denials.<\/p>\n

Carboy filed a new lawsuit against the city on Sunday, asking a judge to order the city to produce the records. A similar lawsuit against the city\u2019s Department of Environmental Protection led to the agency coughing up 68 boxes worth of material on the subject, despite the city claiming for years it had nothing to share.<\/p>\n

Those documents included a memo ordering all agencies to send their documents regarding 9\/11 to the Law Department.<\/p>\n

To Carboy, the latest denial was the same song advocates have heard for nearly a quarter century \u2014 but this time with a different dance partner: Mayor Zohran Mamdani.<\/p>\n

In the lawsuit, Carboy and attorney Matthew McCauley, who are representing the families of 9\/11 illness victims and the survivor advocacy group 9\/11 Health Watch, said that the city closed a 2023 FOIL request for the data sent to the mayor\u2019s office and the city Law Department, as well as two appeals for the data. The last appeal was denied on March 20.<\/p>\n

In the denial, FOIL Appeals Officer Jeffrey Lowell, claims that searches \u201chave not identified any records responsive to your requests under FOIL,\u201d according to court documents.<\/p>\n

Lowell also claimed that \u201cthe Law Department records are not maintained in a manner that allows it to search for records responsive to the request.\u201d<\/p>\n

The denials came in February, three weeks after incoming Corporation Counsel Steven Banks testified before City Hall and vowed to review all of the 9\/11 related documents the city has and \u201crelease or make available what can be made available,\u201d the lawsuit states.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven as a new Corporation Counsel pledges \u2018transparency\u2019 and the release of the Sept. 11 archive, in the corridors of the Law Department and the dimmer corners of City Hall, career officials continue their grinding resistance,\u201d Carboy says in the new lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cCity Hall treats the Freedom of Information Law like a rigged card game, staged atop a cardboard box on a sidewalk. Here, Sept. 11 first responders and survivors, seeking the facts of toxic exposure, are the \u2018marks,\u2019 left without answers after tireless efforts to obtain them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[The city\u2019s] shameful achievement is to make records of the most significant event in New York City history \u2018disappear,\u2019\u201d he added in the suit. \u201cThe FOIL appeal denial from their government might as well read \u2018Thanks for playing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The city, in its search for documents, sent 911 Health Watch internet links to widely available, decades-old federal reports and testimony.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe head-snapping \u2018back and forth\u2019 between city leaders and city lawyers, an effort to prevent any substantive disclosure, is highly improper,\u201d Carboy says in the suit. \u201cThis sleight of hand must stop now.\u201d<\/p>\n

An email to the Law Department about the FOIL denial and Carboy\u2019s lawsuit was not immediately returned.<\/p>\n

\u201cTransparency isn\u2019t optional, it\u2019s essential to any healthy democracy,\u201d a spokesman for the mayor said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cMayor Mamdani has been clear \u2014 transparency and accountability are prerequisites to a city government that truly delivers for New Yorkers. Based on this responsibility, this administration is working to address FOILs, including this request, in a timely and efficient manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the city marking the 25th anniversary of 9\/11 in five months, Benjamin Chevat, the executive director of 911 Health Watch, is hopeful Mamdani will bring about a change.<\/p>\n

\u201cMayor Mamdani can still be the who, after 25 years, 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?\u201d Chevat said Sunday.<\/p>\n

More than 140,000 first responders and survivors are now enrolled in the U.S. Center for Disease Control\u2019s WTC Health Program, which provides 9\/11-related health care benefits. Out of that number, about 81,000 have a certified condition linked to the toxins that hung above Ground Zero.<\/p>\n

On the day of the terror 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.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Thomas Tracy \/ New York Daily News<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Mayor Zohran Mamdani (AP Photo\/Angelina Katsanis, File)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 New York City has denied another request for data about the toxins that swirled above…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[5301,288,85,7299,9,12,56,63,65,64],"class_list":{"0":"post-179163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-9-11","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-nation","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-nyc-headlines","17":"tag-nyc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}