Rudy Giuliani is pushing back against renewed scrutiny of his administration’s handling of the toxic dust that spread through Lower Manhattan after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, saying City Hall publicly released the information it had and followed guidance from the Environmental Protection Agency.

“My administration posted everything,” Giuliani told the New York Post. He said the city relied on the EPA’s initial determination that the air was safe when parts of Lower Manhattan reopened in the aftermath of the attacks.

Giuliani, who was mayor when the World Trade Center was attacked and remained in office through the end of 2001, said he would cooperate with an investigation by New York City’s Department of Investigation. The probe will examine what successive mayoral administrations knew about environmental toxins produced by the attacks and how officials responded.

The investigation was ordered by the City Council in July 2025, and the city has allocated about $3.81 million over two years for outside investigative assistance and public-health expertise. The inquiry will examine records spanning multiple administrations rather than Giuliani’s alone.

The renewed scrutiny follows New York City’s September release of more than 170,000 pages of previously withheld records concerning Ground Zero air quality, health concerns and the city’s response to the attacks. The records include an October 2001 memo warning of potentially significant legal liability related to exposure risks.

The newly released records also contain evidence that city officials continued to encounter concerns about asbestos and other contaminants after public statements that the air was safe. A 2003 EPA inspector general report separately concluded that the agency had not possessed sufficient data to support its September 2001 assurances about air quality.

Giuliani has pointed to the federal government's role in those early assurances. He said he learned roughly 10 months after leaving office that additional information about the air-quality risks had become known.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has taken a sharply different view, accusing previous city administrations of failing to adequately disclose what they knew about the dangers at Ground Zero. City officials have emphasized that the newly released records are intended to establish what government agencies knew, when they knew it, and what decisions were made.

The long-term health consequences of exposure remain significant. More than 9,400 people have died from illnesses associated with World Trade Center exposure, according to federal health-monitoring data, a toll that has surpassed the nearly 3,000 people killed in the September 11 attacks themselves.

The city’s investigation is still in its early stages, and its eventual findings are expected to address the conduct and knowledge of multiple administrations. Giuliani said he is willing to answer questions as investigators review the decades-old records.