The State Department on Wednesday rejected reports that Hillary Clinton's top aide, Huma Abedin, left copies of confidential or classified emails in her car in 2009.

An email was leaked this week showing that in 2009, Abedin had to email a college to say she left some papers in her car that were meant for a "burn bag." That email was seized on as possible evidence that she had left classified materials in a place where they might have been stolen.

But State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau told reporters that just because the materials were destined for a "burn bag," doesn't mean they were classified.

"The premise of the article is incorrect," she told reporters.

"The email specifically references materials in a burn bag," she said. "The story alleges that burn bags ... can only be used for the disposal of classified information. It's not the case. I use burn bags in my office for unclassified information.

"It's not accurate to say that any document going to a burn bag is a document that is classified," she added.

She also said the information the State Department has is that the information in the materials in Abedin's car were not classified. "That's not what the email exchange shows," she said.

Clinton has been the subject of ongoing investigations into her use of a personal email system that the FBI confirmed was used to send scores of emails containing classified information. Clinton hasn't addressed the FBI finding directly, and this week's focus on her aide, Abedin, already seems to be increasing the scrutiny of how Clinton operated while in the government.

Several Republicans have said Clinton shouldn't be allowed to receive classified briefings over the next few months because of how she behaved at the State Department.