Donald Trump

Democrats in the Michigan Senate failed to win a procedural motion Thursday. The resolution they back would ask Congress to appoint an independent investigator to look into ties between President Donald Trump's campaign and Russia in relation to the 2016 election. Trump is pictured on March 19, 2017. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

(Alex Brandon)

LANSING, MI -- Sen. David Knezek, D-Dearborn Heights, failed to win a procedural move in the Michigan Senate Thursday to make the full body consider his resolution asking for an independent investigation of Russia's potential interference in the election.

"We the American people have the right to know exactly what happened during the 2016 election. We have the right to know, and we demand to know the nature of the contacts between President Trump's campaign and Russian agents," Knezek said.

His Senate Resolution 26 would urge Congress to reinstate provisions of the post-Watergate Independent Counsel Act and request the Deputy United States Attorney General to appoint a special counselor to "investigate Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election."

Earlier this week, FBI Director James Comey announced the agency was investigating whether associates of President Donald Trump coordinated with Russian officials to influence the 2016 election.

He introduced the legislation last week, and it was referred to the Senate Government Operations Committee, which Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof, R-West Olive, personally controls.

Knezek said sending it to that committee was a political tactic.

"I think it's become really clear over the last three years that if the majority in this chamber doesn't want something to pass they send it to Government Operations," Knezek said.

On the Senate floor today he moved to discharge it from the Government Operations Committee and let the full Senate consider it. His motion went down when most Republicans, a supermajority in the Senate, voted against it. Only one Republican, Sen. Tory Rocca, R-Sterling Heights, voted with Democrats to discharge the bill.

Asked about the Republican votes against the discharge, Meekhof said "we're not an investigatory body... we do public policy, we're not into the investigating side. There's other people with skills that do that and it's not us."

His spokesperson Amber McCann pointed out that the discharge had not been on the agenda.

While his resolution likely won't see the Senate floor, Knezek said he personally would continue to call for such an investigation.

He said it's become clear to him that Congress is "wholly incapable" of managing an investigation and states could put pressure on their congresspeople to go the route of seeking an independent counselor instead.

"Though legislatively we may have come up short today we're going to make sure that we try to keep this within the public conversation for as long as possible because the American people deserve it," Knezek said.

Note: This article has been corrected to reflect Knezek's district, Dearborn Heights.