So what is good for the goose is good for the gander. Or is it? That is one of today’s questions as Mr. Biden is now found to have multiple classified documents apparently stored for years after he was no longer Vice President in a private office. After belatedly revealing that they had found one group of documents, yesterday’s news had a second batch of classified information at a different location. In the words of one informed observer (see the video above), “how could anyone be so irresponsible?”

It was always problematic for the Biden Justice Department to go after Mr. Trump with criminal charges for his taking classified information with him after leaving office, given that a seemingly similar case of Mrs. Clinton’s private server that contained classified info was determined to not merit any formal prosecution. But with this new revelation on Mr. Biden, the Attorney General Merrick Garland ought to stand down his special prosecutor Mr. Smith (who is investigating Mr. Trump’s handling of classified info at Mar-A-Lago) and simply say, “A pox on them all. Let the voters sort it out.” There is almost no political way now to bring charges against Mr. Trump for mishandling classified information when the sitting President has done essentially the same thing. Yes they are different–Mr. Trump was surely more obstinate. But from a national security perspective there seems to be little difference. By the way, is anybody else hearing Mr. Trump laughing uproariously?

Once upon a lifetime ago, I used to work with highly classified compartmentalized information. When I was initially “read in” to my program, the security office put the fear of God in me (and everybody else). If we mishandled classified information, our careers would likely be over. I learned to treat classified information as if it were a viper–ready to kill me if handled improperly. But later when I was assigned to the Pentagon, where I again had access to this type information, there was a younger captain that had not been raised in that highly classified organization that joined our team. I liked him, he was a good guy. But one day while he was couriering some sensitive compartmented information (SCI) from one part of the Pentagon to another (in a special locked satchel), he decided to stop by the barber shop and get a haircut. And then the viper bit him. Upon concluding his haircut, he forgot about the classified material and left it in the barber shop in its locked container. It was subsequently found by one of the barbers, and he called the number on the outside of the satchel bag and it was retrieved. The captain immediately was removed from his access to any classified information, and sent to another job in the Pentagon, and his security clearance was revoked. His career was over; without a security clearance he had no future. For those that actually work in classified areas, the punishment for mishandling classified info can be severe.

About a year or two later, while still at the Pentagon, I had a congressional staffer call me up on an open line (subject to monitoring!) and ask about some program (let’s call it Gazelle) as his senator was asking him about it. I was not cleared for this program, but suspecting it was classified, I reported it through channels that I thought would know how to deal with it. The senator was on the intelligence committee, and had heard of the program in classified hearings, and yet talked about it openly with staff. I was briefed to forget I ever heard that name of Gazelle. But that Senator continued on the Senate Select Committee for Intelligence. Politicians pay no price.

So what is my assessment today? I’m not sure how you ever get politicians who pay no price if they mishandle classified info to know they are holding a viper. I obviously haven’t seen any of the actual classified info, so I can’t assess the actual national security damage of these three incidents. But I’m fairly confident that Mrs. Clinton’s servers would have been hacked by the Russians and likely the Chinese. Top Americans are targeted for these type efforts by foreign governments (sometimes even friendly ones!) to gather intel–an unsecure private server of the sitting Secretary of State was almost certainly compromised. The physical documents of both Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump were obviously vulnerable too; Mr. Biden’s more vulnerable simply because of the time that they were available. But with Secret Service at Mar-A-Lago, I suspect the security risk was also least likely with Mr. Trump. But each one of these actors, for various purposes, chose to cavalierly treat highly classified information at risk, potentially costing U.S. lives in the future. That is not something to be trifled with. But until we the people hold our politicians accountable at the ballot box for their misbehavior, we unfortunately will get more of it.