Zohran Mamdani’s 9/11 Conspiracy

He alleges a coverup of health effects, despite Congress’s response.

No matter what New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani thinks about the 25th anniversary of 9/11, he isn’t letting the event go to waste. On Tuesday he released some 170,000 pages of city documents that he claims show that officials “lied” about the risks of toxic exposure. This is revisionist history.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani

“These are documents that show what the city knew about the toxic air around Ground Zero, when they knew it, and how they acted to limit liability,” Mr. Mamdani told the press. “People got sick because the leaders they trusted lied and told them they were safe to breathe in toxic air.”

Mr. Mamdani, who was a child on 9/11, implies a grand coverup because officials assured New Yorkers after the attacks that the outdoor air was safe, even though samples of indoor dust around Ground Zero turned up asbestos and other contaminants. But there’s no contradiction. Measures of outdoor air quality at the time didn’t exceed federal health standards.

Federal officials advised clean-up crews and people returning to their homes after the attacks to take precautions since the extent of the indoor contamination—and potential long-term health effects—was unknown. The full effects became clearer with time as those exposed to Ground Zero dust developed chronic respiratory and other ailments.

In 2010 Congress passed a law that provided medical treatment, health monitoring and financial compensation to first-responders and others exposed to toxins. The program resembles the no-fault National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program in that people can get government compensation for injuries if they agree not to sue.

The program compensates individuals for economic harm caused by their injuries, including lost earnings and medical costs if they can show they were present within a specified exposure zone between Sept. 11, 2001, and May 30, 2002. They can also receive pain and suffering payouts, capped at $250,000 per cancer and $90,000 for other conditions.

Some 106,000 claims have been filed through 2025, with some 71,000 thus far paid out. Awards have totalled $16.8 billion since 2011. The program has succeeded in helping victims obtain compensation faster than if they went to court. It has also spared the city having to fight a swarm of plaintiff attorneys seeking to capitalize on the pain and suffering of victims.

Mr. Mamdani’s team flogged a 2001 city memo that estimated the city could face 35,000 potential plaintiffs from “toxic tort cases that might arise in the next few decades.” The memo says “a major concern is that if these cases make it to court, the judges and juries will be biased in favor of plaintiffs (even though the City seems to have a strong defense) and therefore, award substantial damages to compensate individuals for their loss.”

Such claims could have bankrupted the city. That’s in part why Congress stepped in. The federal program has paid out twice as many claimants as the city’s 2001 estimate. But plaintiff attorneys bristle that the program limits their fees at 10% of the award, much less than the 30% to 40% they obtain in contingency fees.

The goal of the mayor’s document dump seems to be to goad Congress to make it easier for trial lawyers to sue the city so his legal friends cash in.