The CIA leak probe today ensnared Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, who disclosed that he was told about CIA operative Valerie Plame nearly a month before her secret identity was revealed and apologized to his editor for keeping him in the dark.
The disclosure that Woodward gave a sworn deposition on Monday to special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald comes more than two weeks after the indictment and resignation of Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, and after Mr Fitzgerald said the bulk of his probe was complete.
The testimony is a sign prosecutors are exploring new leads in the investigation that has reached into the top levels of the White House.
It also prompted the Post's executive editor to publicly chastise one of the best-known journalists in the United States for withholding the information from him.
One of the two Post reporters who led the newspaper's coverage of the 1970s Watergate scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon, Mr Woodward has dismissed the leak investigation in television and radio appearances as laughable and referred to Mr Fitzgerald as "a junkyard dog."
Woodward wrote in a first-person account in the Post that he testified he had learned of Plame's identity in mid-June 2003 from a senior Bush administration official.
Ms Plame's husband, former diplomat Joseph Wilson, has accused the White House of leaking her identity in retaliation for his criticisms of administration claims regarding Iraqi weapons.
Libby's attorney, Ted Wells, called Woodward's disclosure a "bombshell" that undermined Mr Fitzgerald's criminal case. On the eve of Libby's indictment, Woodward had said he saw no evidence of criminal intent in the case, without disclosing his conversations.
He said today that he met with Libby on June 27th, 2003, and told Mr Fitzgerald it was possible Plame was discussed.
However, he said, "I had no recollection of doing so."
Mr Woodward, who did not tell Washington Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie for more than two years about his role, apologized to Mr Downie today, the Post reported on its Web site.