Rudy Giuliani faces financial turmoil amid a $148 million defamation lawsuit, vowing to fight back despite the staggering damages awarded to election workers.

Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, faces a financial ruin if he loses an appeal of a defamation lawsuit that ordered him to pay $148 million to two election workers from Atlanta whom he falsely accused of rigging the 2020 presidential election.

His lawyer, Joe Sibley, argued in a Washington, DC, court on Thursday that the $43 million in damages that Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Andrea “Shaye” Moss, initially demanded would be “the civil equivalent of the death penalty.”

“If you award them what they are asking for, it will be the end of Mr. Giuliani,” Sibley said of his 79-year-old client, according to multiple outlets.

However, the DC jury decided to award even more to the plaintiffs after two days of deliberations. They granted $75 million in punitive damages and $20 million each for emotional distress to Freeman and Moss. They also gave Moss nearly $17 million and Freeman almost $16.2 million for defamation.