text: This crawl of online resources of the 115th US Congress was performed on behalf of The United States National Archives & Records ||||| 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. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
   
   / Updated By Julia Ainsley and Tom Winter 
   
   WASHINGTON — Federal investigators working for Special Counsel Robert Mueller are keenly focused on President Donald Trump's role in crafting a response to a published article about a meeting between Russians and his son Donald Jr., three sources familiar with the matter told NBC News. 
   
   The sources told NBC News that prosecutors want to know what Trump knew about the meeting and whether he sought to conceal its purpose. 
   
   The meeting occurred at Trump Tower in June 2016 and was attended by Donald Trump Jr., Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. The meeting, which was first reported by The New York Times, also involved Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya and former Soviet intelligence officer Rinat Akhmetshin. 
   
   Related: Trump 'Weighed In' on Son's Misleading Statement About Russia Meeting 
   
   At the time, the White House confirmed that Trump had "weighed in" as the response to the Times report was drafted aboard Air Force One on July 8 as the president returned to the U.S. from the G20 meeting in Germany. The Washington Post reported that Trump had "dictated" the response. 
   
   The initial response by Donald Trump Jr. that was drafted aboard Air Force One described the 2016 meeting as "a short introductory meeting. I asked Jared and Paul to stop by. We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government, but it was not a campaign issue at the time and there was no follow up." 
   
   According to The Times, he added: "I was asked to attend the meeting by an acquaintance, but was not told the name of the person I would be meeting with beforehand." 
   
   By the next day the paper reported that the meeting was scheduled in order to convey damaging information about Hillary Clinton and her campaign — an account that Trump Jr. would confirm in a follow-up statement and in emails that he released publicly. 
   
   Related: Former Soviet Counterintelligence Officer at Trump Tower Meeting With Trump Jr. 
   
   In a June 3, 2016, email, publicist Rob Goldstone told Trump Jr. that a Russian prosecutor had "offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary [Clinton] … and would be very useful to your father." 
   
   Trump Jr. responded, "[I]f it's what you say, I love it." 
   
   Emails show that the following day, Goldstone and Trump Jr. began arranging the Trump Tower meeting. 
   
   A person familiar with Mueller's strategy said that whether or not Trump made a "knowingly false statement" is now of interest to prosecutors. 
   
   "Even if Trump is not charged with a crime as a result of the statement, it could be useful to Mueller's team to show Trump's conduct to a jury that may be considering other charges." 
   
   Ty Cobb, the attorney chosen by the White House as special counsel to oversee its response to the Mueller investigation, told NBC News that he assumed “the statement issued after the G20 is of interest, but I'm not aware of any crime associated with that. It was true at the time it was written and true now." 
   
   Cobb said that the statement "was not a bible of events leading up to and after the meeting, but it was not untruthful," pointing to the additional details that Donald Trump Jr. and his attorney have since made public. 
   
   "It was a simple response to a short request," said Cobb, and the president's role in crafting the statement was "minimal.” 
   
   Julia Ainsley and Hallie Jackson reported from Washington, and Tom Winter from New York. ||||| 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.
target: – 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.