In a July 2020 online discussion with British activists, Finkelstein said David Irving "was a very good historian". Finding insufficient the evidence of Richard J. Evans as the expert witness in Irving's unsuccessful libel action in 2000 against Deborah Lipstadt, who had labeled Irving a Holocaust denier, Finkelstein said Irving had "produced works that are substantive…If you don’t like it, don’t read it. In the case of Irving, he knew a thing or two—or three". "The Daily Telegraph" in 2000 accused Finkelstein in "The Holocaust Industry" of defending Irving against Lipstadt, and, according to historian Tobias Abse, giving Irving qualified, secondhand praise.