In 1993, Dr. Deborah E. Lipstadt wrote Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory to expose the lies, distortions, and political agendas that drive Holocaust denial. In the book, she discussed a number of specific Holocaust deniers including David Irving who she called a “dangerous spokesperson” for Holocaust denial.

In 1996, Irving sued Lipstadt and her British publisher, Penguin Books Ltd., for libel, saying his reputation as an historian was defamed. The suit was filed in the UK, where libel laws favor plaintiffs. Irving represented himself. Lipstadt was represented by barrister Richard Rampton, QC, and Anthony Julius and James Libson of Mishcon de Reya. The trial started on January 11, 2000, and ended on April 11, 2000, when Judge Charles Gray handed down his judgment: Lipstadt and Penguin had won their case resoundingly.

Judge Gray found that Irving had “for his own ideological reasons persistently and deliberately misrepresented and manipulated historical evidence” in order to portray Hitler “in an unwarrantedly favourable light” particularly in his treatment of the Jews. Irving had “significantly” misrepresented, misconstrued, omitted, mistranslated, misread and applied double standards to the historical evidence in order to achieve his ideological presentation of history. Judge Gray also found that Irving was an “active Holocaust denier; that he is anti-semitic and racist, and that he associates with right-wing extremists who promote neo-Nazism.”