Monday, during an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “The Story,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) dismissed a claim of bribery put forth against President Donald Trump in response to Fox News contributor Andrew Napolitano.

Gaetz argued such a case would lack what he deemed an “essential element” to meet the standard of bribery.

“I would disagree that bribery would be applicable for this reason: For bribery to have been committed, you have to be asking someone to do something that they would not otherwise do with President Zelinsky, who ran an entire campaign on rooting out corruption,” Gaetz said. “He even said to the president he didn’t believe enough had been done yet, and he needed to make changes with prosecutors to ensure justice was done in the Ukraine. And it seems only justifiable then to say, ‘Well, if you’re looking under the hood, let’s make sure there weren’t Americans, or American administrations were Joe Biden linked to any of that corruption. So, I don’t think the bribery charge will stick because it fails to meet an essential element.”

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor