When President Donald Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service in January, some pundits raised their eyebrows. The skepticism didn’t just arise because a sitting president was essentially suing the government he also runs, but that it was Trump who was doing the suing.

The apparent motive behind the scheme unfolded last month when Trump dropped the lawsuit but an extraordinary deal was announced in its place: A $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization fund” to compensate Americans who felt unfairly prosecuted under previous administrations.

After much backlash from Democrats and even some Republicans, Trump’s Department of Justice said Monday it will abide by a judge’s order to put the fund on hold.

Who, by chance, could have benefited from such a fund? Any of President Trump‘s many allies and advisers who have been convicted or indicted in crimes against the government, such as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, adviser Steve Bannon, former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn or former campaign chair Paul Manafort, among others. Even the Trump Organization, which was found guilty of tax fraud in 2022 and banned from doing business in New York, might have been eligible for payment from the fund.

In addition, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche refused to exempt the hundreds of insurrectionists who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 and were pardoned by Trump from receiving funds. The thought of potentially paying hundreds of people who beat and pepper-sprayed Capitol police officers and trashed the building should offend all who claim to value law and order and democracy.

To dump more salt into Americans’ wounds, Blanche, who previously served as one of Trump’s personal attorneys, filed an addendum to the settlement that permanently banned the IRS from auditing Trump’s past tax returns — which the president has never shared with the public as promised — and previous returns filed by his sons and his company. And there would be a secret five-person commission that would decide who gets the funds. The identities of the recipients of the public dollars would also be shielded from the public.

Thankfully, a federal judge has stepped in, at the urging of 35 former federal judges, to temporarily halt any money from being disbursed under the scheme.

Still, Congress needs to take back control of the public’s purse. Even if Trump drops his plan for the anti-weaponization fund this week, Congress needs to stop him now from reviving it after the midterm elections.

“What we’re talking about is nothing short than the sitting president of the United States looting from the treasury for his own gain,” U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told Blanche during a Senate appropriations subcommittee hearing before Monday’s news that Trump was backing away from the fund.

As lawmakers have either been in support of or looked the other way when it comes to Trump’s $1 billion ballroom, the $13 million no-bid Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool project, the proposed 250-foot triumphal arch and Trump adding his name to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a few Republican lawmakers have signaled that the plan for a slush fund could be the last straw. As the midterms approach, and the president’s popularity wanes, hopefully more lawmakers will grow backbones, listen to their constituents and realize there is indeed a limit to how much government corruption they can tolerate — and Trump has reached it.

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The Seattle Times editorial board: members are editorial page editor Kate Riley, Ryan Blethen, Melissa Davis, Josh Farley, Alex Fryer, Claudia Rowe, Carlton Winfrey, Frank A. Blethen (emeritus) and William K. Blethen (emeritus).

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