Sen. Jeff Flake on Tuesday said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin should scrap his trip to Saudi Arabia next week in light of the disappearance and possible murder of a Washington Post columnist who was last spotted entering Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Turkey.

“Secretary Mnuchin should not be going to Riyadh,” the Republican Arizona lawmaker tweeted Tuesday afternoon.


Mnuchin as of now is scheduled to travel to Riyadh next week to participate in an investment conference, although President Trump said on Monday that Mnuchin would decide whether he would attend the event by Friday.

Other lawmakers, including Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., have said Mnuchin should not attend the conference.

"I don't think any of our government officials should be going and pretending it's business as usual until we know exactly what's happened here," Rubio told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday.

It was reported last week that Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi with permanent resident status in the U.S., was last seen on Oct. 2 entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to receive paperwork for his upcoming wedding to his Turkish fiancee. Turkish officials claim that Khashoggi was killed during his appointment.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Saudi Arabia's King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday. The royals claimed they had “nothing to hide.”

Trump also said that the crown prince has denied having any knowledge of the event and said that answers would emerge shortly.

"Just spoke with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia who totally denied any knowledge of what took place in their Turkish Consulate," Trump tweeted in a series of tweets. "He was with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during the call, and told me that he has already started, and will rapidly expand, a full and complete investigation into this matter. Answers will be forthcoming shortly."