An American ex-patriate, skilled linguist and translator living in Belgium and author of a number of books and papers – like Not Guilty at Nuremberg, Made in Russia: The Holocaust – Porter was charged by the Germans in 1997 for denying the Holocaust. He refused to attend the trial, was tried in absentia and convicted. He responded with a defiant, blistering Emile Zola-like excoriating written counterattack to the judge in his case.