WASHINGTON — The attention-hungry couple that crashed the Obama administration’s first state dinner admitted to a friendly Pentagon official that they went without a confirmed invitation — just in case they got approved at the last minute.
Tareq and Michaele Salahi claimed a dead cell phone battery prevented them from hearing a voicemail earlier that day advising them they did not make the guest list.
The Salahis gave that account in an e-mail sent just hours after last week’s dinner to Pentagon official Michele Jones, who had tried to get them invited. A collection of e-mails between the Salahis and Jones was obtained Tuesday night by the Associated Press.
The Salahis wrote that they drove to the White House at 6:30 p.m. “to just check in, in case it got approved since we didn’t know, and our name was indeed on the list!” The Secret Service has said they weren’t on that list and that it erred by letting them in anyway.
The Secret Service is investigating. Congress also plans to hold a hearing Thursday. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle are described as angry. And the Salahis asked a national television audience to take their word that the e-mail exchange would show that they were invited to the dinner for the visiting Indian prime minister.
The e-mails between the Salahis and Jones show the couple contacted Jones, a special assistant to Defense Secretary Robert Gates and a Pentagon-based White House liaison, who spent four days trying to get them the invitation they vigorously sought.
Jones e-mailed that she would try to get them access to part of the state dinner and asked for data needed to obtain clearance.
An administration official said Tuesday night that Jones had her deputy e-mail the Salahis information to the White House Office of Public Engagement.
The day before the state dinner, Jones e-mailed Salahi that she was still trying, “but it doesn’t seem likely.” Salahi replied with a list of people he said were invited to the dinner but unable to make it. Jones replied, “This will help also!”
According to the administration official, the White House told Jones the day of the dinner that the Salahis could not get in, and Jones then left the Salahis a voicemail before the dinner that they did not get an invitation. .
The e-mails show the Salahis had told Jones earlier that the best way to reach them was through their cell phone.
On NBC’s “Today” show Tuesday morning, the Salahis said they had e-mails that would make clear they did not go to the White House uninvited, but said they could not yet provide them while they were cooperating with the Secret Service on its internal investigation.
“I can tell you we did not party-crash the White House,” Tareq Salahi said.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, however, said Tuesday there was no misunderstanding — the Salahis were not invited to the dinner.
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