Counsel To Release 9/11 Files
New York City's legal counsel is about to drop a big file.
City Corporate Counsel Steven Banks said in a preliminary budget meeting on Friday that the city's law department is creating a publicly accessible portal of the city's 9/11 files.
The trove of documents were brought to light in September 2025 while the city's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) faced and investigation by the City Council and an ongoing lawsuit pushing for the release of 9/11-related documents.
"The fact that the city has sat on these 9/11 files for years, the fact that thousands of people became sick and died of cancer because the city did not disclose the fact that the air was not safe to breathe," said Speaker Julie Menin, while leading into a question at the meeting.
"What is the status of the release of the 9/11 files?" Menin asked Banks.
"We have set up a team that is reviewing what documents can be posted on a portal to provide access to the public," Banks replied.
The proposed portal comes after Attorney Andrew Carboy hunted down and found the long sought-after "Harding memo" last month in deceased Village Voice investigative reporter Wayne Barrett's archives in Texas. (Read the full story behind his discovery here).
The subject line of the memo, which was addressed to Robert Harding, then deputy mayor, and believed to be from October 2001, reads "Legislative Alternatives to Limit the City's Liability relating to 9/11/01".
"According to the Law Department, there are approximately 35,000 potential plaintiffs as a result of the events of September 11 and it is estimate [sic] that 10,000 would file a claim," reads the document.
The writer, Michelle Goldstein, reminds Harding of the $308 million in torts the division handled the year before (roughly 0.81% of that year's budget), then lists potential lawsuits that could come in the aftermath of 9/11.
"Police failed to secure evacuated premises from looters."
"Health advisories caused individuals either to return to the area too soon (causing toxic exposure) or too late (causing economic hardship)."
"Rescue workers were provided with faulty equipment or no equipment (i.e. respirators)."
The memo reveals that shortly after 9/11, the city was clearly aware that respiratory health effects could follow in the aftermath. However, hardly a week later, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani announced it was safe for New Yorkers to return to lower Manhattan.
"Air quality as far as we can tell ... is not dangerous," Giuliani told a paper the next day.
The following Monday, the mayor announced that everything was basically back to normal.
"Tomorrow, both City Hall and the New York Stock Exchange - two powerful symbols of America, one of freedom, the other of free enterprise - will be open for business," he said.
By 2016, the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund, had over 10,000 claims for around $2.25 billion.
“I’m very sorry that people are sick,” Christy Todd Whitman, the head of the United States Environmental Protection Agency during 9/11 told the Guardian in 2016. “I’m very sorry that people are dying and if the EPA and I in any way contributed to that, I’m sorry. We did the very best we could at the time with the knowledge we had.”
More people filed claims. VCF and its CDC-run health provider, the World Trade Center Health Program (WTC), saw their numbers continue to grow as time went on. By 2025 VCF had over 70,000 total claims, and WTC had over 150,000 responders or survivors enrolled.
Any party who has received funds from VCF has signed a waiver to never sue anyone, including the City of New York, over what occurred on 9/11.
"I would not tell anyone, and I mean anyone, my best friend, my family member, a total stranger, to ever sue the city of New York over September 11th issues," said Carboy, the attorney who discovered the memo. "They are immune."
Both Menin and Banks revealed personal interest in releasing the 9/11 files held by the city.
"As I said at my confirmation hearing, this is also personal to me," Banks said. "My daughter, then in the fifth grade, was at school on Chambers and Greenwich Street and was one of the young children evacuated as the buildings were coming down. So I am well aware of how urgent it is that we should act, and we are moving with urgency."