Jonathan Turley exculpates Trump: Bribery must include a thing of value -- like a 'French mistress'

George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley expressed his opposition to impeachment on Wednesday by telling a House committee that President Donald Trump did not commit "bribery" when he offered a foreign government official favors in return for personal gain.

While testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, Turley attempted to define bribery by a standard set in the 1600s.

"Bribery was not this overarching concept that Chairman Schiff indicated," Turley said. "[The Constitution's Framers] actually gave an example of bribery and it was nothing like what was described."

"What Morris said is we need to protect against bribery because we don't want anything like what happened with Louis XIV and Charles II," Turley warned. "Louis XIV who was a bit of a recidivist when it came to bribes gave Charles the II a huge amount of money and a French mistress in exchange for the secret Treaty of Dover of 1670."

"That wasn't some broad notion of bribery," Turley opined. "It was actually quite narrow."

Watch the video clip below from CNN.