WASHINGTON - The State Department says it didn't provide Hillary Rodham Clinton's lawyer with a secure-enough method to read now-highly classified material from her homebrew email server because it didn't anticipate the messages would be deemed so secret.

Officials installed a safe at her lawyer's office after the government determined some of Clinton's emails may have contained classified information. But in a letter obtained by The Associated Press, the State Department told the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that the safe wasn't suitable for the sensitive nature of some messages.

The letter underscores how the State Department didn't anticipate Clinton would have sent or received such sensitive information on her private email server while secretary of state.

That issue has sometimes overshadowed Clinton's run for the Democratic presidential nomination.