The latter can be ordered to act a certain way, and generally they do. I think this is just a caution to their civilian staff to not leak any documents. It was probably issued because the White House has directed all agencies to clamp down on leakers.

The emphasis on "ethics" is because leaks generally refer to unclassified information. Military and intelligence secrets are classified and there are already legal penalties, especially for military men, on those who compromise those items. They are criminal acts.

But the kind of stuff that is driving Trump crazy, is of a political nature, not national security. It may be bad manners, or unprofessional to leak these things, and it may get you disciplined, fired or even blackballed, but you won't go to jail.

No, as much as I'd like to think this is some sinister Big Brother directive, it probably is just a routine warning to the staff to keep their mouth shut and not blab about what's going on at the office. And it was probably written just so the boss could say he had "taken steps" to solve the problem.

IOW, this is no big deal.