--- title: Hillary Clinton Private Email: Obama Knew Address But Not Details description: White House: “He was aware of her email address. He traded emails with her” canonical: https://time.com/3738386/obama-hillary-emails/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-10T01:01:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:59:45.088Z article:section: Politics og:title: Obama Knew About Hillary Clinton's Private Email Address og:description: “He was aware of her email address. He traded emails with her," an aide said og:url: https://time.com/3738386/obama-hillary-emails/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5f2f7c1579e0f3b1/698782e3cd1bba02726f59ce/obama1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2100 og:image:height: 1181 og:image:alt: US-ATTACKS-SUMMIT-DIPLOMACY og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama Knew About Hillary Clinton's Private Email Address twitter:description: “He was aware of her email address. He traded emails with her," an aide said twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5f2f7c1579e0f3b1/698782e3cd1bba02726f59ce/obama1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Obama Knew About Hillary Clinton's Private Email Address, Aide Says > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Know Right Now: Clinton's Private Emails [Watch (HLS stream): Know Right Now: Clinton's Private Emails](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/JMnBWhXy.m3u8) (1:05)  _Published 2015-03-05. Hillary Clinton recently came under fire for using a private server for her email during her time as Secretary of State_  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Mar 10, 2015 1:01 AM UTC  US President Barack Obama delivers remarks on countering violent extremism in Washington, DC, February 18, 2015. US President Barack Obama delivers remarks on countering violent extremism in Washington, DC, February 18, 2015. Jim Watson—AFP/Getty Images  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Mar 10, 2015 1:01 AM UTC President Obama knew about [the personal email address Hillary Clinton used](http://time.com/3731568/hillary-clinton-email/) while she was Secretary of State, [the White House spokesman said Monday](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-obama-knew-hillary-clintons-private-email-address/story?id=29505653), but he was unaware of the private email server she ran out of her home or the extent of its usage. Obama had previously said he learned of Clinton’s exclusive use of private email while at the State Department [“the same time everybody else learned it.”](http://time.com/3736534/obama-clinton-emails/) White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told ABC News on Monday that Obama was referring to Clinton’s apparently lack of compliance with State Department rules by not submitting the communications as formal records for nearly six years. “Yes, he was aware of her email address. He traded emails with her,” Earnest said. “But he was not aware of her personal email server or that she was using it exclusively for all her business.” MORE: [Republicans in Congress Focus on Possible Gaps in Hillary Clinton Emails](http://time.com/3737517/hillary-clinton-emails-congress/) Earnest would not say how frequently Obama and Clinton exchanged emails, only that he “would not describe the number \[of emails\] as large.” Revelations about Clinton’s use of private email have become the presumptive Democratic presidential frontrunner’s biggest political headache to date, and multiple reports have indicated she’s likely to address the matter publicly soon. She recently called for [the release of the 55,000 emails](http://time.com/3732996/hillary-clinton-state-department-emails-public-release/) her aides handed over to the State Department, though her camp has said about 10% of the emails on her private server were personal and not turned over. \[[_ABC_](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-obama-knew-hillary-clintons-private-email-address/story?id=29505653)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3738386/obama-hillary-emails/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3738386/obama-hillary-emails/"},"headline":"Obama Knew About Hillary Clinton's Private Email Address, Aide Says","datePublished":"2015-03-10T01:01:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:59:45.088Z","description":"“He was aware of her email address. 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