When pressed by NBC News reporter Ryan Nobles on the timing of the message, which according to the panel’s records was sent after Biden concluded his second term as vice president but before his 2020 campaign, and how Biden could have been exerting political influence if he wasn’t in office or a presidential candidate, Smith sidestepped the question.

“Well, I think the facts speak for themselves. There’s over 700 pages of examples of where people should be very concerned,” Smith said, adding later that Biden “was a candidate” during that period.

Biden launched his 2020 bid in April 2019.

During the news conference, Smith also pointed to an August 2020 email from U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf allegedly directing investigators to remove all mentions of Biden, who was referred to as “political figure one,” from a search warrant for an investigation involving his son. Wolf had been part of U.S. Attorney David Weiss’ team investigating Hunter Biden.

Asked by Nobles about the timing of Wolf’s email, sent during the Trump administration when Bill Barr was U.S. attorney general, Smith suggested that Donald Trump’s role as president was inconsequential to the underlying assertion that there’s a two-tiered justice system in the United States.