No, high ranking and connected politicians don't lose their careers or have their lives destroyed, not even for having classified information on an unsecured email server instead of on government supplied and secured hardware. They can just claim they are too stupid to know if something is classified and get away with it. Heck, they can even run for president with the full backing of a major party after doing it.
So, yeah, SOME people can get away with it, but you know that those without connections don't.