Ex-AG Farmer denies there was dancing, cheering in Jersey City

There were no cheering crowds in Jersey City as the World Trade Center towers collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001, according to then-attorney general John Farmer.

Donald Trump is sticking by his claim that as the towers came down, crowds of Muslims, "thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down" in Jersey City

"We checked that out instantly," Farmer, who is now a law professor at Rutgers School of Law in Newark, recalled in an interview Tuesday with NJ Advance Media. "If it had been going on — especially in the thousands — we would have locked that place down. Because it would have been a serious threat to public safety."

In a separate op-ed piece, Farmer recalled that reports of Muslims "dancing on the rooftops and in the streets of Jersey City and Paterson" was one of the reports his staff was tracking down on 9/11.

At a meeting the next day in Jersey City with Muslim community leaders, Farmer wrote that "they condemned the attacks and confirmed what we had learned from the Jersey City Police: No dancing, no celebrating, had occurred."

Gov. Chris Christie, former Gov. Donald DiFranesco and current Jersey City mayor Steven Fulop have all said that the celebration cited by Trump did not happen.