1. United States
2. Maine
3. Letter

STOP Trump's corrupt slush fund. Take back and enforce Congress's constitutionally enshrined power of appropriation. ABC News reports that Trump is expected to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS in exchange a $1.7 billion slush fund which will be used for payouts, *taxpayer-funded* payouts to MAGA allies who claim they were wrongfully targeted by the Biden Administration. Everyone who cares about the rule of law and curtailing corruption should be outraged. The government of, by, and for the people IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE A PRIVATE CASH DISPENSER to reward the President's friends, allies, and those who break the law on his behalf. As you know, Trump has been abusing his pardon power to pardon January 6 insurrectionists and law breakers. (You are surely also aware that a number of those pardoned have subsequently been re-arrested for other serious offences. This presidential payout scheme is unconscionable, unconstitutional, and reeks of criminality. It also points to a larger aspiration to build a private force willing to break the law in support of an aspiring dictator. Will you tolerate it? Read what a professor of constitutional law says: ""The President has no authority to conjure up billion-dollar compensation schemes or raid the Judgment Fund which exists to settle valid lawsuits. Trump is systematically converting neutral government mechanisms into a presidential slush fund to build his army of political dependents." (H/t Jamie Raskin) I write to demand that you stop this corrupt payout scheme and also block all funds to the illegal ballroom and other vanity projects which like the ballroom lack public utility and planning approval-- namely the ballroom, the triumphal arch, and the illegally contracted overprice unapproved paint job on the reflecting pool. Have you forgotten that Trump is a tenant in the White House, not a permanent resident? History will remember and judge this Congress. No more blather about alleged fraud in social security or other entitlements or benefits we need to survive. STOP THE CORRUPTION OF TRUMP. Please use all the tools at your disposal: Hearings, oversight, subpoenas, legislation, judicial referrals and impeachment