Tareq and Michaele Salahi are interviewed on the “Today” show in this image made from video provided Tuesday by NBC Universal. The couple that got into the White House state dinner for the visiting Indian prime minister without invitations denied Tuesday that they were gatecrashers. Appearing on the same program, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs insisted the Salahis had not been invited.

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 from a source who got them in manner that confirmed their authenticity.

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.

Last week’s White House gate caper has captivated a capital where high-end social life and celebrity eruptions frequently enliven the day-to-day business of governing. The Secret Service is investigating. Congress also is about to hold a hearing. 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.

Earlier Tuesday evening, the administration said it will make at least one change to its practices for invitation-only events: The White House social office will go back to making sure that one of its staff members will be present at the gates to help the Secret Service if questions come up, the first lady’s communication director, Camille Johnston, said.

Johnston maintained that this has been an existing policy, but the White House and Secret Service have said that no such person was present last week as guests arrived for the dinner. Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley said the plan for the dinner did not call for a social office employee to be at the gate, but that agents also didn’t call the office to ask for assistance or clarification.

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 their Social Security numbers and other 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.”

At 8:46 a.m. the day of the dinner, Jones wrote: “I will call or email as soon as I get word one way or another.”

According to the administration official, the White House told Jones the Salahis could not get in to the dinner and Jones then left the Salahis a voicemail before the dinner that they did not get an invitation. The official, who was not authorized to discuss the e-mails, spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The e-mails show the Salahis had told Jones earlier that the best way to reach them was through their cell phone.

At 1 a.m. Wednesday — hours after the dinner ended — the Salahis e-mailed Jones to say their “cell phone battery died early this evening while we were in DC” and they just received her voicemail message but had gone earlier to the White House anyway.

They wrote that they had gotten in and had a “wonderful evening.”

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.