The White House says President Barack Obama traded emails with Hillary Rodham Clinton while she was secretary of state and knew that she used a non-government email account.

Obama had been asked previously how he learned Clinton had used a nongovernment email system for official business, and told CBS News that it was through recent news reports.

But White House spokesman Josh Earnest says Obama was referring in that interview to the details of Clinton’s home-based email setup and the fact that she was using private email exclusively. He wasn’t referring to the existence of her private account, Earnest said Monday.

He said Obama and Clinton did exchange emails but not a large number. Earnest says any emails between the two would have been preserved according to the Presidential Records Act.

(AP)