Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker warned the Trump administration on Thursday that its information “clampdown” on the alleged killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi can’t go on.

The Tennessee Republican said in an interview he sought to view recent U.S. intelligence on Monday and Tuesday regarding Khashoggi’s disappearance and likely murder in Turkey this month but was told by U.S. officials that he could not do so. Corker suggested that the administration’s current opaque position on who may have killed Khashoggi and whether Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman is responsible may be untenable.

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“This is going to come to a head in a very short amount of time. This isn’t getting better over time. It seems to me over the next week or so people are going to know more about what happened,” Corker said. “There has been a clampdown on any further intelligence updates to senators … it can’t go on that long, they need to come out and share their views of what happened and share with us.”

Corker, like many senators, said he believes that bin Salman is likely responsible for Khashoggi’s killing, though he concedes he isn’t yet certain. And the Trump administration’s decision to withhold its most recent intelligence from Corker, an occasional Trump critic, underscores the president’s desire to keep close information that could harm the Saudis position among members of Congress.

But even absent a smoking gun, some Republicans have been direct about bin Salmon’s involvement.

“This guy is a wrecking ball. He had this guy murdered in a consulate in Turkey, and to expect me to ignore it? I feel used and abused,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Fox News this week. Bin Salman “can never be a world leader on the world stage.”

President Donald Trump told reporters on Thursday that it “certainly looks like” Khashoggi is dead, calling it “very sad.”

The Senate Intelligence Committee is continuing to receive intelligence updates on Khashoggi, an aide said. But Corker said he has only been able to view intelligence that’s a week old or more. On Tuesday he asked to view intelligence in a secure compartment in the Capitol and received an “apologetic” call from an official who informed him that no more information would be given to members of Congress.

Corker said he is “disappointed” about the blackout, but he understands why the intelligence pipeline to Congress has stopped. The Trump administration, he said, is trying to regroup in the face of bipartisan outrage toward Saudi Arabia’s possible role in the death of a journalist.

The United States is often aligned with Saudi Arabia on fighting terrorism in the Middle East, and sells billions in weapons to the Saudis. Some senators have sought to block those sales, and they indicated in recent interviews that they will try once again after the midterm election. A recent effort failed in the Senate with little GOP support.

But Khashoggi’s apparent death has ramped up pressure on Republicans to do something about Saudi Arabia. The situation amounts to a no-win situation for many members of Congress.

“Some of my colleagues, their attitude seems to be, well, we’re going to cut them off like a dead stump, never talk to them again, punish the hell out of them the rest of their natural lives,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) on Wednesday. “That may make some people feel good for a while, but it’s not realistic if you want to contain the pressure cooker that is the Middle East.”

The president and his administration say that Congress is jumping to conclusions too quickly, and Trump has compared bin Salman’s treatment to that of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused of sexual assault. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Saudi Arabia this week to discuss Khashoggi’s disappearance and briefed the president on it Thursday.

“They assured me they will complete, thorough investigation of all of the facts surrounding Mr. Khashoggi and will do so in a timely fashion. And that his report itself will be transparent,” Pompeo said. “I told President Trump this morning that we ought to give them a few more days to complete that.”

Kennedy said he did not believe the Saudis should be conducting the investigation. And if there is evidence that clears the Saudi Arabian leader, members of Congress want to see it soon.

“Everything that we’ve seen thus far is pointed at MBS,” Corker said. “We may well find out if MBS was not involved, though I would be shocked … I don’t think the administration can allow this to swirl around too much longer without taking a definitive position.”

Elana Schor contributed to this report.

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday he told President Donald Trump to give Saudi Arabia “a few more days” to complete its probe into the disappearance and alleged murder of Washington Post journalist and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi.

Trump dispatched Pompeo to Riyadh earlier this week for talks with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and his son Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince. The secretary has taken heat for his amiable interactions with the monarch after images were released of Pompeo smiling with him on camera.

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Pompeo told reporters that the Saudis assured him they would conduct a thorough and transparent investigation and would make the results available to the public.

“This report itself will be transparent for everyone to see, to ask questions about … I told President Trump we ought to give them a few more days to complete that so that we, too, have a complete understanding of the facts surrounding that — at which point, we can make decisions about how or if the United States should respond to the incident surrounding Mr. Khashoggi,” Pompeo said on Thursday.

Turkish officials have told U.S. media outlets that Khashoggi was dismembered alive and beheaded by a team of Saudis inside the consulate and that audio evidence of his death exists. Trump has requested audio or video intelligence, though he has cast doubt on whether it exists.

As other members of the administration have done in the past two weeks, Pompeo on Thursday pivoted to a “long, strategic relationship” with Saudi Arabia to deflect what has been a cacophony of calls to action against the Middle Eastern kingdom.

“They continue to be an important counterterrorism partner. They have custody of the two holy sites. They’re an important strategic alliance of the United States,” Pompeo told reporters. “We need to be mindful of that as well.”

Even as Pompeo urged patience with the Saudis, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced he would pull out of a Saudi investment conference dubbed “Davos in the Desert” that was scheduled for next week. Mnuchin had been under pressure for days to cancel the trip, especially as a growing number of business leaders, entrepreneurs and media outlets said they would not attend the conference.

“Just met with @realDonaldTrump and @SecPompeo and we have decided, I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia,” Mnuchin wrote on Twitter.

Public outcry has mounted on Pompeo for being seemingly being overly trustworthy of the powerful crown prince, who denies any kind of knowledge about Khashoggi’s whereabouts. Republicans and Democrats alike in Congress have chastised the administration for not outwardly pressuring Saudi Arabia enough for answers, raising the possibility of imposing sanctions on Saudi Arabia if they are found to be responsible for Khashoggi’s death.

In a much-criticized exchange with reporters about his meeting before departing Riyadh, Pompeo resisted revealing any details of the ongoing Saudi investigation. “I don’t want to talk about any of the facts,” Pompeo said. “They didn’t want to either, in that they want to have the opportunity to complete this investigation in a thorough way.

And on Wednesday, The New York Times reported that just as Pompeo landed in Riyadh for his meeting with the Saudi royals, the Saudis deposited a payment of $100 million in U.S. accounts for “American efforts to stabilize areas in Syria liberated from the Islamic State.”

But CNN also reported Thursday that behind closed doors, Pompeo had a tense conversation with the crown prince, telling him that Saudi Arabia had to own the situation because his future as king depended on it.

Asked by reporters why the Saudis should be trusted to conduct an impartial investigation, Pompeo said on Thursday that the public will eventually get a chance to judge the results.

“We’re all going to get to see the work, the response that the kingdom of Saudi Arabia takes with this,” Pompeo said. “When we see that, we’ll get a chance to determine, all of us will get to make a determination with respect to the credibility and the work that went into that — whether it’s truly accurate, fair, transparent in the very way they made a personal commitment to me, and the crown prince also made a personal commitment to the president when he spoke to him.”