Last week, Ben Carson denied selecting $31,000 furniture for his office, but newly released emails tell a different story.

The emails show that Carson and his wife Candy personally picked the pieces, reports CNN. An email from August with the subject line “Secretary's dining room set needed" was sent to Carson’s assistant and mentioned “printouts of the furniture the Secretary and Mrs. Carson picked out."

HUD had been discussing office furniture for months with some of emails dating to last May and feature a discussion between Carson’s aides about existing chairs that needed repairs.

“Could you all get the dining room chairs tighten up?" one of them wrote. "Most of them are loose and wiggling." Another aide referred to the furniture as “fairly precarious" and said that she wanted to “avoid someone having an accident (and embarrassment!) should the chair collapse beneath them."

The department received an estimate for repairs at $1,100, but the repairs weren't made because the HUD scheduling office emailed Candy Carson for her input on new furniture in early August.

“Hi Mrs. Carson!" the scheduler wrote. "There is a designer who will be in town next week on the 15th-17th to look at possibly redecorating the Secretary's office and bringing in new furniture. Are you available on any of those dates and would you like to come in and have input on the redecorating?"

The scheduler also gave her a deadline for the furniture order, citing funding regulations.

“We must have the order for new furniture in before the 21st in order to use the money allocated for this fiscal year," the emails read. Candy Carson’s response wasn’t included, but an initial quote shows the order would cost $24,666, just under the $25,000 budget. The final bill was $7,000 more due to upholstery, delivery and installation charges.

The emails were acquired by liberal watchdog group American Oversight via the Freedom of Information Act.

Earlier this month, several statements were released denying the Carsons’ involvement in the order.

“New tables, chairs, in that room whatsoever — zero awareness of this purchase being made," Carson’s spokesman, who did not want to be named, said. "Neither one of them knew this purchase was being made. The secretary knew that the table and chairs were old because somebody fell out of a chair once. That's literally it. So they had nothing to do with the purchase, nothing to do with anything around that."

Carson also released a statement denying his involvement. “I was as surprised as anyone to find out that a $31,000 dining set had been ordered," Carson said in the statement. "I have requested that the order be canceled. We will find another solution for the furniture replacement."

HUD spokesman Raffi Williams also defended the Carsons.

“Mrs. Carson and the secretary had no awareness that the table was being purchased," Williams told CNN. CNN approached him again about the contradictions in the story, and Williams offered a vague explanation.

“When presented with options by professional staff, Mrs. Carson participated in the selection of specific styles."