But as FBI Director James B. Comey stated at his news briefing, people who have engaged in similar activities have been subject to security and administrative sanctions.

I know of such cases.

A Foreign Service officer sat in my office in Bonn with tears in his eyes because he feared that discovery of the latest in his string of security violations, albeit none willful, might result in the loss of his top-secret clearance and continued diplomatic service. He feared correctly.

Clinton and her colleagues, Comey said, were “extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.” Now that the Justice Department has decided to turn the page on Clinton, the State Department said it will reopen an internal review of the handling of classified information and her email use.

Spoiler alert: Some career employees will be reprimanded.

Clinton and her inner circle, however, face no serious consequences, as they are no longer federal employees — until, perhaps, Inauguration Day 2017.