Cover-up

A cover-up is an attempt, whether successful or not, to conceal evidence of wrongdoing, error, incompetence, or other embarrassing information. Research has distinguished personal cover-ups (covering up one's own misdeeds) from relational cover-ups (covering up someone else's misdeeds).

The expression is usually applied to people in positions of authority who abuse power to avoid or silence criticism or to deflect guilt of wrongdoing. Perpetrators of a cover-up (initiators or their allies) may be responsible for a misdeed, a breach of trust or duty, or a crime.

While the terms are often used loosely, cover-up involves withholding incriminatory evidence, while whitewash involves releasing misleadingly exculpatory evidence, and a frameup involves falsely blaming an innocent person. Misprision is the failure of mandated reporters to disclose crimes they are aware of (e.g., a military officer failing to proactively report evidence of treason, or a hospital failing to report child abuse).

A cover-up involving multiple parties is a type of conspiracy.

Snowjob is an American and Canadian colloquialism for deception or a cover-up; for example, Helen Gahagan Douglas described the Nixon Administration as "the greatest snow job in history".

When a scandal breaks, the discovery of an attempt to cover up the truth is often regarded as even more reprehensible than the original deeds.

Initially, a cover-up may require a lot of effort, but it will be carried out by those closely involved with the misdeed. Once some hint of the hidden matter starts to become known, the cover-up gradually draws all the top leadership, at least, of an organization into complicity in covering up a misdeed or even crime that may have originally been committed by a few of its members acting independently. This may be regarded as tacit approval of that behaviour.

It is likely that some cover-ups are successful, although by definition this cannot be confirmed. Many fail, however, as more and more people are drawn in and the possibility of exposure makes potential accomplices fearful of supporting the cover-up and as loose ends that may never normally have been noticed start to stand out. As it spreads, the cover-up itself creates yet more suspicious circumstances.

The original misdeed being covered may be relatively minor, such as the "third-rate burglary" which started the Watergate scandal, but the cover-up adds so many additional crimes (obstruction of justice, perjury, payoffs and bribes, in some cases suspicious suicides or outright murder) that the cover-up becomes much more serious than the original crime. This gave rise to the phrase, "it's not the crime, it's the cover-up".

Cover-ups do not necessarily require the active manipulation of facts or circumstances. Arguably the most common form of cover-up is one of non-action. It is the conscious failure to release incriminating information by a third party. This passive cover-up may be justified by the motive of not wanting to embarrass the culprit or expose them to criminal prosecution, or even the belief that the cover-up is justified by protecting the greater community from scandal. Yet, because of the passive cover-up, the misdeed often goes undiscovered and results in harm to others ensuing from its failure to be discovered.

Real cover-ups are common enough, but any event that is not completely clear is likely to give rise to a thicket of conspiracy theories alleging covering up of sometimes the weirdest and most unlikely conspiracies.

The following list is considered to be a typology since those who engage in cover-ups tend to use many of the same methods of hiding the truth and defending themselves. This list was compiled from famous cover-ups such as the Watergate Scandal, the Iran-Contra Affair, My Lai massacre, the Pentagon Papers, the cover-up of corruption in New York City under Boss Tweed (William M. Tweed and Tammany Hall) in the late 19th century, and the tobacco industry cover-up of the health hazards of smoking. The methods in actual cover-ups tend to follow the general order of the list below.

Initial response to allegation

1. Flat denial
2. Convince the media to bury the story
3. Preemptively distribute false information
4. Claim that the "problem" is minimal
5. Claim faulty memory
6. Claim the accusations are half-truths
7. Claim the critic has no proof
8. Attack the critic's motive
9. Attack the critic's character

Withhold or tamper with evidence

1. Prevent the discovery of evidence
2. Destroy or alter the evidence
3. Make discovery of evidence difficult
4. Create misleading names of individuals and companies to hide funding
5. Lie or commit perjury
6. Block or delay investigations
7. Issue restraining orders
8. Claim executive privilege

Delayed response to allegation

1. Deny a restricted definition of wrongdoing (e.g. torture)
2. Limited hang out(i.e., confess to minor charges)
3. Use biased evidence as a defense
4. Claim that the critic's evidence is biased
5. Select a biased blue ribbon commission or "independent" inquiry

Intimidate participants, witnesses or whistleblowers

1. Bribe or buy out the critic
2. Generally intimidate the critic by following him or her, killing pets, etc.
3. Blackmail: hire private investigators and threaten to reveal past wrongdoing ("dirt")
4. Death threats of the critic or his or her family
5. Threaten the critic with loss of job or future employment in industry
6. Transfer the critic to an inferior job or location
7. Intimidate the critic with lawsuits or SLAPP suits
8. Murder; assassination

Publicity management

1. Bribe the press
2. Secretly plant stories in the press
3. Retaliate against hostile media
4. Threaten the press with loss of access
5. Attack the motives of the press
6. Place defensive advertisements
7. Buy out the news source

Damage control

1. Claim no knowledge of wrongdoing
2. Scapegoats: blame an underling for unauthorized action
3. Fire the person(s) in charge

Win court cases

1. Hire the best lawyers
2. Hire scientists and expert witnesses who will support your story
3. Delay with legal maneuvers
4. Influence or control the judges

Reward cover-up participants

1. Hush money
2. Little or no punishment
3. Pardon or commute sentences
4. Promote employees as a reward for cover-up
5. Reemploy the employee after dust clears

Depending on the nature of cover-up activities, they may constitute a crime in certain jurisdictions.

Perjury (actively telling lies to the court, as opposed to refusing to answer questions) is considered a crime in virtually all legal systems. Likewise, obstruction of justice, that is, any activity that aims to cover-up another crime, is itself a crime in many legal systems.

The United States has the crime of making false statements to a federal agent in the context of any matter within the federal jurisdiction, which includes "knowingly and willfully" making a statement that "covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact".

• The Dreyfus Affair
• Armenian genocide denial
• Katyn massacre
• The Iran–Contra affair
• The Luzhniki disaster
• The Chernobyl disaster
• The My Lai massacre
• The Roman Catholic sex abuse cases of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
• The Watergate scandal
• Russian doping scandals
• Stormy Daniels–Donald Trump scandal

Conspiracy theories generally include an allegation of a cover-up of the facts of some prominent event. Examples include:

• John F. Kennedy assassination
• TWA Flight 800 conspiracy theories
• Korean Air Lines Flight 007 alternate theories
• M/S Estonia
• New World Order
• Pusztai affair
• Roswell incident
• September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks
• Attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi
• UFOs in general
• Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal, 2012
• Mamasapano clash
• Death of Jeffrey Epstein
• Origin of COVID-19
• 2022 Nord Stream pipeline sabotage
• 2023 Ohio train derailment

• The dictionary definition of cover-up at Wiktionary
• Media related to Concealment at Wikimedia Commons