(Bloomberg) -- Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said Saudi Arabian backing for Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter Inc. should be scrutinized by a government panel that reviews national security risks from foreign investments in the US.

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“We should be concerned that the Saudis, who have a clear interest in repressing political speech and impacting U.S. politics, are now the second-largest owner of a major social media platform,” Murphy said in a tweet Monday on the social media platform. “There is a clear national security issue at stake and Cfius should do a review.”

Among the investors backing Musk’s takeover is Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal through the Kingdom Holding Company and his private office, which agreed to roll over nearly 35 million Twitter shares, worth about $1.9 billion at $54.20 per share.

Murphy, of Connecticut, is a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Members of Congress can ask the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to look into a transaction, but it doesn’t necessarily trigger a review, according to Shannon Reaves, a partner at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP who works on issues related to the committee.

“It’s not the first time that a member of Congress has pressed for a Cfius review of a transaction,” Reaves said in an interview. “Cfius will need to assess whether it has jurisdiction. Cfius will also need to do a preliminary look to understand whether the transaction has the potential to present national security risk.”

Still, the request is another political pressure point on the deal, which has drawn a wary reaction from Democrats and cheers from many Republicans.

Senator Mark Warner, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has also raised concerns in a recent interview about the potential for Musk to be pressured by China, where his electric car maker Tesla Inc. has a massive factory, to moderate content it doesn’t like.

Murphy’s request to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen for a review comes as the Biden administration is weighing whether the US should subject Musk’s Twitter purchase and other ventures, including a deal for Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s Starlink satellite network, to scrutiny on national security grounds. Several experts on CFIUS and its workings last week cast some doubt on whether there is a strong enough argument for the committee to review Musk’s recent business deals.