Learn something new every day:

Hillary Clinton and her staffers still have active State Department security clearances, meaning they still have access to classified intelligence, according to Fox News' Malia Zimmerman.

However, Clinton and her aides are in danger of losing that access now that the State Department has opened a "formal inquiry" into whether she and her team mishandled classified information when she served at the top spot at Foggy Bottom.

It's the latest development in a very long story involving Clinton and her use of an unauthorized private State Department email server.

It's unclear when this new inquiry by the State Department was first launched, but it seems to have come on the heels of former FBI Director James Comey's announcement in July 2016 that he'd recommend no charges be brought against Clinton for her ethically dubious use of a homebrew server.

Fox's Zimmerman outlined one possible consequence of the new inquiry, writing, "Depending on the outcome of the current State Department inquiry, Clinton and her aides could have their access to sensitive government documents terminated."

To be clear, it's not unusual for former senior officials to maintain some level of access to classified information, as national security attorney Bradley Moss explained Wednesday to LawNewz.com. This is done with the idea that former officials can be called on to advise on issues involving sensitive intelligence.

However, it may still strike some as odd that Clinton and her aides have maintained their clearance despite that Comey himself characterized her handling of classified State information as "extremely reckless." The State Department's own Inspector General even reported her private server was a serious violation of department policy.

"At a minimum, Secretary Clinton should have surrendered all emails dealing with department business before leaving government service and, because she did not do so, she did not comply with the Department's policies that were implemented in accordance with the Federal Records Act," the IG's report said.

If the State Department revokes Clinton's clearance, she can appeal the decision. However, it seems unlikely it'll come to that, according to Moss.

"It would be unusual for this to happen for a senior official … but Clinton's behavior was unusual as well," he said.

A Clinton spokesman meanwhile downplayed news of the new inquiry, and suggested that going after the private server story is tantamount to beating a dead horse.

"Nothing's been more thoroughly dissected. It's over. Case closed. Literally," Nick Merrill told Fox.