Rep. Ron DeSantis, ahead of what many are expecting to be entry into the 2018 Florida Governor’s race, is looking to help out President Donald Trump — by putting a time limit onto Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller‘s investigation into the Trump campaign. 
 
 The DeSantis amendment: “None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to fund activities pursuant to Department of Justice order 3915-2017, dated May 17, 2017 and relating to the appointment of a special counsel, later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, or for the investigation under that order of matters occurring before June 2015.” 
 
 POLITICO notes this is one of hundreds of amendments to an omnibus spending bill to be taken up after recess, and there is no guarantee this makes it through committees into the bill at large. 
 
 As well, there is no guarantee that such a measure survives the Senate, where relationships have been frayed between President Trump and Republicans of various ideological stripes. 
 
 DeSantis, a Republican in his second term whose district runs from St. Johns County south to Volusia, has yet to file for re-election. ||||| A Republican lawmaker has put forth an amendment that would stop funding for the special counsel’s Russia investigation 180 days after it becomes law. 
 
 The amendment from Rep. Ron DeSantis Ronald Dion DeSantisElection Countdown: 5 days to midterms | Steve King faces his toughest test | Oprah stumps for Abrams in Georgia | Trump stokes controversy with immigration ad | Dems keep focus on health care | Polls show West Virginia, Indiana Senate races tightening Terry McAuliffe: Trump is 'scared' and knows he's going to lose the House Gillum: Trump gives 'cover' to racists MORE (R-Fla.) would also prevent special counsel Robert Mueller Robert Swan MuellerSasse: US should applaud choice of Mueller to lead Russia probe MORE from probing “matters occurring before June 2015,�? which is the month Trump announced his presidential bid. 
 
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 The amendment was submitted as part of the upcoming spending package the lower chamber is expected to weigh after the congressional recess. 
 
 Mueller, who was appointed special counsel in May, is responsible for investigating Russia’s interference in the presidential election and any potential ties between President Trump Donald John TrumpTrump concerned Zinke broke rules amid DOJ referral: report 1,600 scientists sign letter opposing Trump’s plan to narrow gender definition Five Takeaways from West Virginia's Senate debate MORE’s campaign staff and Moscow. ||||| Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel probing Russian interference in the 2016 election, departs Capitol Hill in Washington in June. (Andrew Harnik/AP) 
 
 Republican senators who worked swiftly last summer to help write legislation protecting special counsel Robert S. Mueller III now are showing little urgency to get those measures passed. 
 
 The legislation, which would allow a panel of federal judges to review orders to fire the special counsel, was intended to prevent President Trump from pushing out Mueller before he completes his investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election. 
 
 But two different bipartisan proposals have been mired in negotiations for months. And despite continuing signs from the president that he is unhappy with Mueller's investigation — which prompted the initial call for the legislation — Republicans appear to be losing their resolve to act. 
 
 "We're still having the discussion," Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), the co-author of one of the bills, said this week. "It's not driven by any current events." 
 
 Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), another co-author of one of the bills, said, "I don't really know," when asked the status of negotiations. 
 
 The lack of action has prompted some Democrats to accuse Republicans of intentionally drawing out passage of the legislation. 
 
 "There is a sense that the wagons have been circled," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and co-sponsor of one of the two bills. Blumenthal said his GOP colleagues are under "political pressure" not to cross the president on Russia. 
 
 "The question is really whether our Republican colleagues have a sense of emergency that I think befits our present situation," Blumenthal said. 
 
 There is not much left to negotiate. Both Democrats and Republicans say the main sticking point between the two bills is a dispute over whether a three-judge review of a special counsel's termination should occur automatically or at the special counsel's request. 
 
 But should senators produce a compromise bill, the next hurdle is significant: convincing skeptical Republicans that it is constitutional for a three-judge panel to review a president's termination order, when people in the executive branch serve at the pleasure of the president. 
 
 "I've never been convinced they're constitutional," said Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Judiciary committee. 
 
 [Trump team’s meeting with Mueller’s office poised to ratchet up tensions] 
 
 On the other side of the Capitol, House Republicans have not drafted parallel legislation, many of them instead joining forcefully with Trump in criticizing Mueller's investigation. In particular, they have called for a separate independent investigation of political bias within the FBI, following revelations of texts between bureau officials disparaging Trump. 
 
 Graham, Tillis, Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.) wrote their bills over the summer to protect Mueller after Trump hinted that he might fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions as a way of reorganizing the Justice Department. At the time, Trump was furious that Sessions, a Trump loyalist, had recused himself from campaign-related matters at the department, leaving oversight of Mueller's probe to Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein. 
 
 Installing a new, loyal attorney general with direct oversight of the investigation could make it easier for Trump to force Mueller's dismissal. 
 
 If anything, Trump's invective against Mueller has escalated since then. 
 
 Earlier this month, after former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with former Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak, Trump launched a Twitter storm criticizing the bureau and its previous director, James B. Comey. 
 
 [‘I never asked Comey to stop investigating Flynn’: Trump goes on tweetstorm about the FBI] 
 
 This week, an attorney for Trump's presidential transition joined the fray, arguing that Mueller improperly obtained the Trump transition team's emails from the General Services Administration rather than from the transition team directly. 
 
 The lack of resolution has some Democrats convinced that Republicans are holding off to give Trump wiggle room to fire Mueller if the probe gets too close for comfort to the Oval Office. 
 
 In a floor speech Wednesday, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) accused House Republicans calling for Mueller's ouster of participating in a "seemingly coordinated" campaign to promote "baseless accusations" against Mueller's character and professionalism. 
 
 After his remarks, Warner stopped short of charging the White House with actively coordinating the campaign when asked by reporters — and also demurred when asked if Senate Republicans were complicit by not doing anything to protect Mueller's probe. 
 
 "It's hard for me to imagine that they wouldn't be troubled by what appears to be a coordinated effort to undermine Mueller in many ways — more broadly, even, the FBI," Warner said, attributing the Senate GOP's inaction to lawmakers' preoccupation with the tax bill that passed along near-party lines Wednesday. 
 
 The White House again pushed back on the rumors of a possible firing of Mueller Wednesday evening. 
 
 "For five months or more the White House has persistently and emphatically stated there is no consideration of firing the Special Counsel and the White House willingly affirms yet again, as it has every day this week, there is no consideration being given to the termination of the Special Counsel," Ty Cobb, a White House lawyer overseeing the Russia investigation, said in a statement. 
 
 Tillis has said repeatedly over the last few weeks that he wants to strike a deal on legislation to protect the special counsel. But he also noted Trump's statement over the weekend that he has no plans to fire Mueller — and said he believes the president. 
 
 Graham echoed that sentiment — and also voiced support for a growing effort within the Senate GOP to shift the discussion to the need for separate investigations into bias at the FBI as well as the Justice Department's handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe, and a 2010 decision to let Russia assume a significant stake in the U.S. uranium market 
 
 "I take the president at his word, he has no intention to fire Mueller," Graham said. 
 
 Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) said he is waiting to see what negotiators come up with before he even considers putting a bill through the legislative process. 
 
 "I suspect there are some Republicans that may not want to pass [the bill]," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the leading Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, though she warned that "nothing would be worse for the GOP" than if Trump fired Mueller. 
 
 Read more at PowerPost ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
 
 / Updated By Ken Dilanian, Carol E. Lee and Tom Winter 
 
 WASHINGTON — Special Counsel Robert Mueller issued grand jury subpoenas in recent days seeking testimony from public relations executives who worked on an international campaign organized by Paul Manafort, people directly familiar with the matter told NBC News. 
 
 This is the first public indication that Mueller's investigation is beginning to compel witness testimony before the grand jury — a significant milestone in an inquiry that is examining the conduct of President Donald Trump and his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, among others. 
 
 Paul Manafort after a meeting of Donald Trump's national finance team at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York on June 9, 2016. Brendan McDermid / Reuters file 
 
 It is also further indication that Manafort, Trump's onetime campaign chairman, could be in serious legal jeopardy. 
 
 According to one executive whose firm received a subpoena, Mueller's team is closely examining the lobbying campaign, which ran between 2012 and 2014. Some of the firms involved in the campaign received subpoenas for documents weeks ago, the executive said, and now the Mueller team is seeking testimony. 
 
 "We think they are trying to figure out, was this a legitimate project?" the executive said. "From our perspective it was — we did a lot of work. We took it seriously." 
 
 Related: Manafort, Flynn Are Key Figures in Mueller's Russia Probe 
 
 Manafort, whose Alexandria, Virginia, apartment was raided by FBI agents last month, has emerged as a key figure in the Mueller probe. The inquiry into the lobbying campaign appears to be part of a larger investigation into his work for a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party, his offshore banking transactions, his tax compliance and his real estate dealings, people familiar with the probe have told NBC News. 
 
 Manafort also was present at a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lobbyist and a Russian lawyer, along with Donald Trump Jr. and Kushner. NBC News has previously reported that Kushner is under scrutiny by investigators, and that Mueller is examining whether President Trump obstructed justice. 
 
 The executive said six firms participated in the public relations effort that Manafort coordinated, paid for by a Brussels-based non-profit called the European Center for a Modern Ukraine. The stated goal was to build support for Ukraine's entry into the European Union. 
 
 Two of the firms, Podesta Group and Mercury LLC, worked in Washington with Manafort partner Rick Gates, according to lobbying disclosure records. Three other firms worked in Europe, the executive said. NBC News could not confirm the identity of those three. 
 
 At the time, Ukraine was run by a pro-Russian political party that had paid Manafort $17 million for consulting in 2013 and 2014, according to Manafort's latest foreign lobbying disclosure filing, which he filed belatedly under Justice Department pressure. 
 
 Related: Guess Who Came to Dinner With Flynn and Putin 
 
 The party's leader, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, fled to Russia during a popular uprising in 2014. 
 
 Manafort's spokesman, Jason Maloni, declined to comment. 
 
 The Associated Press first revealed the pro-Ukraine lobbying campaign in August 2016, while Manafort was still running the Trump campaign. 
 
 The report said the campaign was designed to sway public opinion and included attempts to solicit favorable press coverage in The New York Times and Wall Street Journal. 
 
 Related: Trump Surprised by FBI Raid on Manafort Home: 'Pretty Tough Stuff' 
 
 At the time, neither Manafort nor the firms had registered as foreign agents. The executive told NBC News that was because the non-profit said that it was not funded by a government or a political party. 
 
 In recent months, the Justice Department told the Mercury and Podesta firms that they should have registered as foreign agents, and they did so. 
 
 Under the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act, people who lobby on behalf of foreign governments, leaders or political parties must file detailed disclosures about their spending and activities to the Justice Department. Willful failure to file the forms is a felony and can result in up to five years in prison — but such prosecutions are extremely rare. 
 
 Ken Dilanian and Carol E. Lee reported from Washington, and Tom Winter from New York.
– A Florida Republican is looking to halt funding for Robert Mueller's special investigation into ties between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russia and bar review of all matters before Trump's campaign kicked off. The amendment put forth by Rep. Ron DeSantis would block Mueller from investigating "matters occurring before June 2015" and end funding for the probe 180 days after the amendment is passed, reports the Hill. DeSantis says the order appointing the special counsel "didn't identify a crime to be investigated and practically invites a fishing expedition" and that "Congress should use its spending power to clarify the scope and limit the duration of this investigation," per Politico. The amendment by DeSantis—who some suspect will run for governor of Florida in 2018, per Florida Politics—is just one of hundreds attached to the government spending bill and may never make it through committees. The House Rules Committee, Politico notes, has freedom to strike out amendments it deems improper. The bill will be reviewed after lawmakers return from a recess next week. While House members have been away, Mueller has apparently been busy. His investigators are allegedly focused on whether Trump helped construct a "knowingly false statement" that aimed to hide the true purpose of the meeting between a Russian lawyer and Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort, reports NBC News.