Curiouser: Bob Woodward’s relationship with the current administration and its Nixon 2.0 proclivities has raised doubts about the moral compass of the man who broke the Watergate story, with Carl Bernstein, in the early 1970’s. Now comes word that Woodward, who is now the assistant managing editor of the Washington Post, was told the secret identity of the CIA agent by an unnamed White House official one month before her identity was disclosed by rightwing propagandist Bob Novak at the behest of operatives inside the White House.

According to the Post, Woodward’s testimony significantly alters the timeline of events developed by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald:

Woodward’s testimony appears to change key elements in the chronology Fitzgerald laid out in his investigation and announced when indicting Libby three weeks ago. It would make the unnamed official — not Libby — the first government employee to disclose Plame’s CIA employment to a reporter. It would also make Woodward, who has been publicly critical of the investigation, the first reporter known to have learned about Plame from a government source

A spokesliar in Karl Rove denied that Rove was the unnamed official who spoke with Woodward. Whoever he or she is, the unnamed official belatedly told investigators about the June 2003 conversation with Woodward one week after Bush staffer Scooter Libby was indicted. Here’s how the Post reported on its most famous employee’s testimony:

In a more than two-hour deposition, Woodward told Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald that the official casually told him in mid-June 2003 that Plame worked as a CIA analyst on weapons of mass destruction, and that he did not believe the information to be classified or sensitive, according to a statement Woodward released yesterday.

Fitzgerald interviewed Woodward about the previously undisclosed conversation after the official alerted the prosecutor to it on Nov. 3 — one week after Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, was indicted in the investigation.

Citing a confidentiality agreement in which the source freed Woodward to testify but would not allow him to discuss their conversations publicly, Woodward and Post editors refused to disclose the official’s name or provide crucial details about the testimony. Woodward did not share the information with Washington Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. until last month, and the only Post reporter whom Woodward said he remembers telling in the summer of 2003 does not recall the conversation taking place.

The Post reporter is Walter Pincus, who had this to say about Woodward’s sworn statement that he told Pincus about Plame:

Pincus said he does not recall Woodward telling him that. In an interview, Pincus said he cannot imagine he would have forgotten such a conversation around the same time he was writing about Wilson.

“Are you kidding?” Pincus said. “I certainly would have remembered that.”