No, its not like that. There’s no guarantee that they would rule in his favor. No one has ever used federal funds to the extent he has, and then tried to return them. Dean is the only precedent, and he never actually used the funds to borrow against.
With all the bureaucracy, there are waiting periods in government all the time. You follow the law until you get the OK not to. You can’t take it upon yourself to just randomly break them, and assume that they’re gonna rule in your favor. I can’t just start carrying a pistol while my permit is pending and assume i’m going to get approved, even though it takes forever and a day.