Jordan Wood is running for Congress in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District. He grew up in Maine and went on to become a Capitol Hill chief of staff and pro-democracy advocate.

On Jan. 6, 2021, I was on Capitol Hill, barricaded in my office with Congresswomen Katie Porter and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, while a mob attempted to violently overturn a free and fair election. We can never forget what happened that day. But the Trump administration is trying to rewrite history.

President Trump recently announced a $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund, a pot of taxpayer money the Justice Department will hand out to people who claim they were wrongly targeted by the federal government. When asked, the acting attorney general would not commit to keeping these funds away from the people who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Before Jan. 6, members of the Oath Keepers stockpiled assault weapons and tactical gear in a Virginia hotel, ready to move on Washington if Trump called. When the rioters breached the Capitol, they assaulted the officers guarding it. Roughly 140 Capitol and city police officers were hurt, some losing eyes or suffering other permanent injuries. Officer Brian Sicknick collapsed and died after defending the building. In the months that followed, several of the officers who held the line took their own lives.

These violent rioters are the people Trump’s fund could compensate, with your tax dollars.

Think about what that money could do instead. Washington always tells us there is no money. No money for Medicare for All. No money to build homes families in Maine can afford. No money for childcare that currently can cost as much as a mortgage. Somehow, there is $1.776 billion available to reward the people who stormed the Capitol. Donald Trump isn’t trying to lower your costs. He is fighting for someone else.

When Trump pardoned and commuted the sentences of the Jan. 6 attackers, he sent his most loyal supporters a message: break the law for me, and I will protect you. Now this fund goes even further. It is no longer enough to keep them out of prison; they can be paid for what they did, while you foot the bill. We cannot let a lawless administration make that normal.

This is a brazen level of corruption our country has never seen before. Trump sued the IRS for $10 billion, his own Justice Department agreed to settle, and the price was a fund his appointees control, with no judge required to sign off on their decisions.

But Congress is not powerless to stop this. After the Civil War, Congress barred federal claims to anyone who aided the rebellion in the South. We can do it again: stop a single dollar from reaching anyone convicted of Jan. 6 crimes or pardoned for them, and claw back whatever has already gone out. None of this is complicated. It just requires members of Congress with the courage to stand up to the president and do their jobs.

I am running to represent Maine’s 2nd District because I am done watching Congress stand by while Donald Trump tramples the Constitution and robs taxpayers to enrich his allies. I have spent my career fighting this kind of corruption, as Rep. Katie Porter’s chief of staff, at End Citizens United and at democracyFIRST. I know how Congress works firsthand, and how to exercise its power. When I get to Washington, I will lead the fight to shut this fund down and put that power to work where it belongs, lowering costs for Maine families.

I was there on Jan. 6. I saw what those people did. And I will spend every day in Congress making sure they are never rewarded with a cent of your money.