Statement on Historic Settlement with NYC of 911 Health Watch’s Freedom of Information Request for the Release of 9/11 Records
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Benjamin Chevat
911 Health Watch
646 477 1461
Ben.Chevat@911HealthWatch.org
Andrew Carboy
Law Offices of Andrew J. Carboy LLC
212 520 7565
acarboy@carboylaw.com
Matthew McCauley
Turken, Heath & McCauley, LLP.
914 363 6355
mmccauley@thmllp.com
Statement by 911 Health Watch Executive Director Benjamin Chevat:
“I want to thank Mayor Mamdani for being the Mayor, after 25 years, who finally begins to answer the question, “What did the City know about the dangers from the toxic cloud at Ground Zero and when did it know it?
I want to thank Steve Banks, who has changed the Law Department, getting it to do something revolutionary to resolve our lawsuit and comply with NY public records laws.
Through the agreement with 911 Health Watch, the City will make available to the public hundreds of thousands of pages of its records concerning September 11 air quality, risk assessments and messaging.
Here is a copy of the agreement.
For 25 years, four different Mayoral administrations kept from the public, the U.S. Congress, and the City Council documents showing what the City actually knew about the danger of the toxic chemicals in Lower Manhattan and Western Brooklyn after the World Trade Center collapse, even as City officials continued messaging to the public that the air was “safe and acceptable.”
911 Health Watch reached this point after a long journey but did not get here alone.
911 Health Watch thanks NYS AFLCIO who created 911 Health Watch.
Thank you to the individuals, labor unions, community and environmental groups that long demanded the government address the air quality crisis that sickened so many and advocated for relief.
The families of Luis Alvarez, Charles Flickinger, Robert Klingon and Robert Fitzgibbon, all lost to 9/11 related cancers, for joining this latest effort.
Students, residents, office workers, survivors, first responders and recovery workers all benefitted from the pioneering and continuing work of: WTC Community-Labor Coalition; Juan Gonzalez, Daily News; Dave Newman, NYCOSH; Lee Clarke, DC-37; Micki Siegel de Hernandez, CWA; Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins of The Village Voice; Lisa Baum, NYSNA; Kimberly Flynn, 9/11 Environmental Action; Rob Spencer, OSA; Jo Polett, resident; Catherine McVay Hughes, resident and former member of CB1; Stan Mark, AALDEF; and Paul Stein, PEF among many others.
You can see their prior efforts here.
They worked for years fighting prior City Administrations.
I want to thank, Congresswoman Maloney (my former employer) and Congressman Nadler for starting this most recent effort just after the 20 th Anniversary in 2021. These U.S. Representatives asked then-Mayor de Blasio to review the City’s records and release them. The requests were ignored by Mayor de Blasio and fought by his successor, Mayor Adams.
I thank my lawyers, Andrew Carboy and Matthew McCauley, who, when Mayor Adams refused to respond to the requests of Representative Maloney and Nadler, began our own Freedom of Information process and lawsuits seeking the documents.
Through their work:
- The City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) reversed its denial that responsive records existed and turned over hundreds of thousands of pages;
- We learned the City Law Department systematically collected, scanned and archived relevant World Trade Center records from every City agency in 2002, directing their permanent retention;
- Located the Deputy Mayor Robert Harding memo, a document the City denied existed in a private Texas archive, making it public for the first time in our Court filings. The memo showed that, by October 2001, the City feared that its urging residents to return to lower Manhattan before it was safe to do so would result in over 10,000 toxic claims;
- Argued for and won a ruling from NYS Supreme Court Justice Clynes that the City violated public records law;
- Took testimony from a City public records official that our requests were denied, at the direction of his supervisor, without appropriate searches and interviews being conducted.
Above all, they worked to reach an agreement with Corporation Counsel Steve Banks to reverse the obstruction of the past quarter century and get the records we sought released to the public.
I thank Council Member Gale Brewer, who did two things: Using a provision in the City Charter for the first time, she and her staff obtained Council passage of a resolution mandating the Department of Investigation to investigate the City’s September 11th archive. And she highlighted the issue at the confirmation hearing of the Corporation Counsel.
The DOI investigation is now fully funded, with $4 million, will span the next two years, and culminate in an official, definitive report of findings as to what the City knew and when about airborne contaminants in the months after the World Trade Center collapse.
I thank, too, then-Speaker Adrienne Adams, who supported the DOI resolution, as well as Speaker Julie Menin, who worked to ensure the investigation is fully funded, highlighting the issue at the confirmation hearing of the Corporation Counsel.
I want to thank the New York Daily News, its reporters, and Editorial Board for covering this story exhaustively from the beginning—and especially in the past five years.
And I especially thank New York Supreme Court Justice James G. Clynes for his careful attention to our Article 78 case and fair application of the law.
Justice Clyne’s decision led directly to the settlement announced today.
- On May 28, 2026, Justice Clynes ruled that the Adams administration violated the Freedom of Information Law by denying 911 Health Watch’s 2023 request for September 11th records. The Court deemed the City’s obstruction “arbitrary and capricious.” Justice Clynes’ decision, which the City elected not to appeal and is now time-barred from doing so, drove today’s settlement with the Mamdani administration.
- Justice Clynes also ordered City officials responsible for the denials during the Adams Administration to explain their obstruction under oath. Questioning the first official, we learned that the DEP denied our requests for World Trade Center documents at the direction of a lawyer—not because the responsible DEP staff member had conducted a search for the records or interviewed staffers with any knowledge, as required by law.
- This testimony revealed the decades-long efforts of the City, all the way from the attacks through to the Adams administration, to keep the September 11th archive a secret, hidden from the public.
I want to thank, too, every member of the September 11th community, from survivors to responders to recovery workers to students, residents and office workers, and the families of those that have died from their 9/11 conditions for their constant support and encouragement.
We expect the portal to include records hidden from the public for over 25 years and documents responsive to 911 Health Watch’s FOIL requests.
Here are the major points of the agreement reached between 911 Health Watch and the City:
- First, the City agrees to launch a Records Portal with the goal of making publicly available: as many of the records 911 Health Watch sought as well as other records of public interest and importance. The City will also provide information about relevant programs for those still impacted by September 11th.
- Second, the City acknowledges, for the first time, the existence of the Harding Memo. It will provide a link to the memo on the public portal, along with “an explanation as to how the document was identified and made available.”
- Third, the City commits to support the DOI investigation, pledging full cooperation, but also to significant collaboration in the future.
- Fourth, the City pledges to improve access to records needed by rescue and recovery workers, survivors, former City employees, and public-school students to establish their presence in the Exposure Zone to become eligible for enrollment in the World Trade Center Health Program (“WTCHP”) and September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (“VCF”);
- Fifth, the City will promote awareness of and participation in the World Trade Center Health Program’s Youth Research Cohort, once the program opens. This federal research program will study illnesses that may have developed among those who were minors or in utero during the aftermath.
- For the City to reach these goals, 911 Health Watch and its counsel will meet with the City, monthly, for the next year.
- At these monthly meetings, 911 Health Watch will address “the total number of documents produced, the total number of pages produced, the sources of the documents (department) and the subject matter.” The agreement further provides that additional search terms and subject matters may be raised at any time, and that “the City will consider them, in good faith, with a view to locating other responsive records and posting them.”
- Although the case is being resolved, Justice Clynes will retain authority over the proceeding for one year. If disputes arise, Justice Clynes will have the authority to grant relief and order further Court-supervised investigation and testimony.”
Andrew Carboy, Counsel to 911 Health Watch:
“We commend the fresh commitment to transparency by Mayor Mamdani and Corporation Counsel Steve Bank. But the City’s reversal is no reason for celebration. The September 11th community expects the government to obey the law, and not willfully defy it for a quarter century.
Our lawsuit demonstrated City staffers behaved more like members of an authoritarian regime than public servants. Twenty-five years ago, City lawyers reached out to all agencies and engaged in a systemic collection of the documents making up the secret September 11th archive, scanning and preserving them, indefinitely. Career officials then ‘forcibly disappeared’ the archive, resisting its disclosure and denying its existence. Not even sitting members of the City Council or the U.S. Congress could access these records.
When City lawyers advised us in 2024 that September 11th records did not exist, we sued. The City demeaned our case as “baseless,” and sought its dismissal, representing to Justice Clynes, yet again, that the records did not exist. Under continuing Court scrutiny, and with the news of a DOI law enforcement investigation, the DEP then admitted it actually possessed hundreds of thousands of records, a stunning reversal.
Today, with rebuilding trust between City Hall and the September 11th community as a goal, the agreement will function to verify the commitment made by the current administration, in three ways:
1. 911 Health Watch will maintain oversight of the records portal for the next year, meeting monthly with responsible City officials.
2. There will be a probationary period before the case is closed. For the next year, Justice Clynes will retain authority over 911 Health Watch’s lawsuit. If disputes arise or if the City fails to abide by the agreement, Justice Clynes will have the authority to restart our case, grant relief to 911 Health Watch and order further Court-supervised investigation and testimony.
This provision was non-negotiable, given the importance of the disclosure we expect from the City after 25 years of its stonewalling.
3. 911 Health Watch also secured the City’s commitment to cooperate fully and not interfere with the DOI investigation, an independent inquiry concerning the City’s air-quality messaging following the World Trade Center collapse. The DOI, one of the nation’s premiere law enforcement agencies, will conclude its investigation in two years and issue a report of its findings.
911 Health Watch secured the Harding memo, viewed by many as a “smoking gun,” at a cost of just $20 and a search of three hundred boxes. We expect the City’s return on investment—$34 million in taxpayer funds for the records portal and another $4 million for the DOI investigation—to be equally robust when measured by the resulting volume and significance of public disclosures.”
Matthew McCauley, Counsel to 911 Health Watch:
“As a 9/11 First Responder and advocate who, along with the entire 9/11 Community, has endured decades of denial and refusals by the City of New York when it comes to information about the toxic exposures we all faced, it is an honor to be part of the team that has forced the city to move its moral compass and begin to offer some transparency.
As with all things concerning the health and welfare or the 9/11 Community, it just shouldn’t be this hard. Yet, 25 years later, organizations like 911 Health Watch stand ready to advocate for this community no matter how difficult the issue is and to ensure that #NEVERFORGET truly stands for what it means, not just as a political slogan or passing reference.
I am honored to stand shoulder to shoulder with my co-counsel Andy Carboy on behalf of Ben Chevat, 911 Health Watch and the families who worked with us in this endeavor on behalf of everyone in the community. Andy and Ben’s 20 plus years of advocacy, 9/11 litigation experience and tenacity as advocates is only surpassed by their heart and soul. As a First Responder, you would “go down the hall” any day with them as your partner and the same is true here.
Our team is formidable and backed by an unbeatable and relentless 9/11 Community. It is clear the city saw that and took the path that respects the community, rather than stonewalling it like previous administrations.
As detailed in the stipulation, the City’s agreement to our terms provides resources, collaboration and transparency for years to come for the 9/11 community. In addition, it provides significant oversight by the Department of Investigation as well as 9/11 Health Watch.
The City has earmarked almost $40 million dollars in spending to address the issues we raised in our case and will now make millions of pages of documents available for public review. While that is quite an accomplishment, we required the City to produce public service messages to the public about the studies being conducted by the World Trade Center Health Program, including those who would be categorized as the in-utero population, as they are currently not covered by the program. This and other requirements of our terms may provide important benefits to those in need and additional scientific touchstones that may help our community’s health.
While this administration has shown it is willing to take the first steps here, we will ensure there are more and #NEVERFORGET.“
DOCUMENTS
NYS Court Docket 911 Health Watch Article 78 on DEP
NYS Court Docket 911 Health Watch Article 78 on Mayors Office
For more information, go to our website here:
911 Health Watch Website on Effort to Get New York City to Release 9/11 Documents