He didn't, and I recall that Snowden was motivated to do so outside the reporting systems after he saw the Director of National Intelligence straight-up lie to Congress.

Snowden was pretty smart; it's quite a good thing that he chose to act in good faith.

> Did Snowden try to go they official channels? I don't think he did, Snowden (mostly rightly) decided to bypass the existing reporting systems.

I believe he was deterred from pursuing action through official channels after seeing how William Binney and other whistleblowers were treated.