New York, New York - Rudy Giuliani was found liable by a federal judge for defaming two Atlanta election workers whom he and President Donald Trump falsely accused of acting to rig the 2020 election in Georgia for President Joe Biden. Now the former New York mayor's legal says he will continue to fight back

On Wednesday, a federal judge issued a default judgment against Giuliani, ruling that he brazenly refused to produce evidence to Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss, the workers who gained nationwide attention from their testimony before the congressional Jan. 6 committee.

The two sued Giuliani over his repeated false claims that they had been caught trying to illegally tip the vote count in favor of Biden while working as Fulton County election workers during the 2020 vote count.

Giuliani and Trump accused them of being criminals, comparing them to drug dealers for handing one another what they claimed were fake votes loaded onto a USB stick, which turned out to actually be candy.

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The former NYC mayor is ordered to pay more than $130,000 in legal fees and other costs to the mother and daughter duo, and must now face a trial to determine the amount of damages he must pay.

"Giuliani helped unleash a wave of hatred and threats we never could have imagined," Freeman and Moss wrote in a statement. "The fight to rebuild our lives and reputations is... one step closer. And for that, we're grateful."

US District Court Judge Beryl Howell mocked Giuliani for his claim last month that he could avoid providing evidence as ordered by the court without also admitting guilt, which Howell described as Giuliani "donning a cloak of victimization" while avoiding even the most basic legal responsibilities.

"This performance has served only to subvert the normal process of discovery in a straight-forward defamation case, with the concomitant necessity of repeated court intervention," Howell wrote.

Ted Goodman, a spokesperson for Giuliani, said their team plans to repeal, and predicts the ruling would be reversed. Goodman described Howell's judgement as "a prime example of the weaponization of our justice system, where the process is the punishment."

Giuliani, along with Trump and 17 other co-defendants, will also fight felony charges in the sprawling Georgia racketeering election interference case, to which he faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison if convicted under the state's tough RICO law.

He is seeking to get his part of the racketeering case moved to federal court by arguing that he was acting as a federal agent at Trump's request.