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78 | HOW AMERICA LOST ITS SECRETS mation, he was fully aware of what the consequences of divulging this information would be. By this time, as we know, he had already agreed to deliver classified data to three journalists. Snowden believed that bringing complaints to NSA lawyers or supervisors was, as he put it, “playing with fire.” “When I was at NSA,” Snowden later said in Moscow, “everybody knew that for anything more serious than workplace harassment, going through the official process was a career-ender at best.” Nevertheless, on April 5, 2013, while still in the training facility in Maryland, he apparently sought to establish a paper trail for him- self. He wrote a letter to NSA’s Office of the General Counsel asking whether or not NSA directives take precedence over acts of Con- gress. A lawyer from the Office of the General Counsel responded three days later, addressing Snowden as “Dear Ed.” The lawyer said that acts of Congress take precedence over NSA directives. He also suggested that “Ed” phone him if he needed any further clarifica- tion. Presumably, Snowden had asked the question to elicit a reply he could later use to bolster his claim that the NSA had ignored or ) rejected policies regarding NSA directives. Instead, the “Dear Ed” © response was of little use to Snowden, because it did not dispute his point that NSA directives must lawfully conform to the acts of Con- gress. The NSA lawyer never heard back from “Ed.” Snowden completed his orientation course at Fort Meade on Fri- day, April 12, 2013. While he was in Maryland, he took time off to pay visits to both of his divorced parents. It would be the last time he would see either of them in the United States. He returned on April 13 to Hawaii. One domestic task he had to attend to was helping Mills pack up their possessions, which they stored in boxes in the garage. The lease on their house was up on April 30, 2013, and they had to move. According to Mills, they found a temporary rental just a few blocks away. On Monday, April 15, Snowden began on-the-job training as an analyst at the National Threat Operations Center. He would not complete the course. The same week he began the training, he prepared his exit by writing to Booz Allen and saying he needed a brief medical leave in May to undergo treatment for epilepsy symp- toms. As far as is known, he did not suffer from epilepsy. Booz Allen | | Epst_9780451494566_2p_all_r1.z.indd 78 ® 9/29/16 5:51 Pa | | HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019566