Cover-up explained

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).^[1]

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 interchangeably, cover-up involves withholding incriminatory evidence, while whitewash involves releasing misleading evidence. See also Misprision.

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

Modern usage

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.

The mildest case, not quite a cover-up, is simply to release news which could be embarrassing but is not important enough to guarantee attention, at a time when other news is dominating the headlines, or immediately before a holiday or weekend.

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".^[2]

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" is often 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 which 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.

"Snowjob" is an American and Canadian^[3] colloquialism for a deception or a cover-up; for example, Helen Gahagan Douglas described the Nixon Administration as "the greatest snow job in history".^[4]

Typology

The following list is considered to be a typology^[5] 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 Watergate Scandal, Iran-Contra Affair, My Lai Massacre, 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,^[6] and the tobacco industry cover-up of the health hazards of smoking.^[7] 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^[8] (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^[9]

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

In criminal law

Depending on the nature of cover-up activities, they may constitute a crime in certain jurisdictions. Perjury 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 not only providing misleading statements but also the withholding of information.

Examples

• The Dreyfus Affair^[10]
• Armenian genocide denial^[11]
• Katyn massacre^[12]
• The Iran–Contra affair^[13]
• The Luzhniki disaster^[14]
• The Chernobyl disaster^[15]
• The My Lai Massacre^[16]
• The Roman Catholic sex abuse cases of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.^[17]
• The Watergate scandal^[18]
• Russian doping scandals^[19]
• Stormy Daniels–Donald Trump scandal

Alleged cover-ups

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

• John F. Kennedy assassination^{[20] [21] [22]}
  • TWA Flight 800 conspiracy theories Korean Air Lines Flight 007 alternate theories
• M/S Estonia^[23]
• New World Order^[24]
• Pusztai affair^[25]
• Roswell incident^[26]
• September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks^[27]
• Attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi^[28]
• UFOs in general^[29]
• Mamasapano clash^[30]
• Death of Jeffrey Epstein
• Origin of COVID-19
• 2022 Nord Stream pipeline sabotage
• 2023 Ohio train derailment^{[31] [32]}

Notes and References

1. Kundro. Timothy. Understanding When and Why Cover-Ups Are Punished Less Severely . Academy of Management Journal. 2021 . 64 . 3 . 873–900 . 10.5465/amj.2018.1396 . 218805378 .
2. News: Carlson . Margaret . With Trump, It's Not the Cover-Up. It's the Crime. . 29 December 2020 . The Daily Beast . 23 October 2019 . en.
3. Encyclopedia: Define snow job at dictionary.com. 6 November 2013. dictionary.com.
4. News: Books of The Times; Nixon's Enemy in 1950 Had the Last Laugh in '74. 16 April 2008. Herbert Mitgang. The New York Times. 25 May 1992.
5. The systematic classification of the types of something according to their common characteristics. See Wiktionary.
6. Ackerman, K. D. (2005). Boss Tweed: The rise and fall of the corrupt pol who conceived the soul of modern New York. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers. .
7. See biography of the whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand
8. News: From Rome, A 'Limited Hangout'. McGrory. Mary. 25 April 2002. Washington Post. 29 June 2017.
9. See also List of whistleblowers.
10. Web site: DREYFUS CASE ("L'Affaire Dreyfus") . JewishEncyclopedia.com . 13 March 2012.
11. Dadrian . Vahakn N. . The signal facts surrounding the Armenian genocide and the Turkish denial syndrome . Journal of Genocide Research . 2003 . 5 . 2 . 269–279 . 10.1080/14623520305671. 71289389 . First, there are the organized attempts to cover up the record of past atrocities. The nearest successful example in the modern era is the 80 years of official denial by successive Turkish governments of the 1915–17 genocide against the Armenians in which some 1.5 million people lost their lives. This denial has been sustained by deliberate propaganda, lying and coverups, forging documents, suppression of archives, and bribing scholars..
12. Sterio . Milena . Katyn Forest Massacre: Of Genocide, State Lies, and Secrecy . Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law . 2011 . 44 . 615 .
13. https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters (Walsh Report)
14. News: '82 Moscow Soccer Tragedy Is Exposed . Andrew . Katell . . . 10 July 1989 . 18 February 2012.
15. News: Soviet Announces Nuclear Accident at Electric Plant . The New York Times . 29 April 1986 . 26 April 2014 . Schmemann . Serge . A1 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140427011434/http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0426.html . 27 April 2014 . live .
16. Web site: Doug Linder . The Peers Report on the My Lai Massacre . Law.umkc.edu . 13 March 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081115153853/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mylai/MYL_Peers.htm . 15 November 2008 . dead .
17. Web site: Boston Globe / Spotlight / Abuse in the Catholic Church / Scandal and coverup . . 31 January 2002 . 10 November 2013.
18. Web site: TRANSCRIPT OF A RECORDING OF A MEETING BETWEEN THE PRESIDENT AND H.R. HALDEMAN IN THE OVAL OFFICE ON JUNE 23, 1972 FROM 10:04 TO 11:39 AM - Watergate Special Prosecution Force . 13 March 2012 . 28 May 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100528003941/http://www.nixonlibrary.gov/forresearchers/find/tapes/watergate/wspf/741-002.pdf . dead .
19. News: McLaren report: more than 1,000 Russian athletes involved in doping conspiracy . The Guardian . London . Lawrence . Ostlere . 9 December 2016 .
20. Mark Lane (1966). Rush to Judgment: A Critique of the Warren Commission's Inquiry Into the Murders of President John F. Kennedy, Officer J. D. Tippit and Lee Harvey Oswald. Holt Rinehart & Winston
21. Henry Hurt (January 1986). Reasonable Doubt: An Investigation into the Assassination of John F. Kennedy. Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
22. [Michael L. Kurtz]
23. Rabe, J(2002) Die Estonia: Tragödie eines Schiffsuntergangs, Publisher: Delius Klasing
24. Goldberg, Robert Alan (2001). Enemies Within: The Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America. Yale University Press. .
25. Rowell, Andrew (2003). Don't worry, it's safe to eat: the true story of GM food, BSE, & Foot and Mouth. Earthscan. .
26. Web site: Dirk Vander Ploeg, Wainfleet, Ontario, Canada . 2002 SEALED AFFIDAVIT OF WALTER G. HAUT . Ufodigest.com . 13 March 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120314014638/http://www.ufodigest.com/news/0707/haut.html . 14 March 2012 . dead .
27. Web site: Hypotheses: Principal Alternative Theories of the Attack retrieved March 2010 . Stj911.org . 13 March 2012.
28. Web site: Docs Back Up Claims of Requests for More Security in Benghazi. News.yahoo.com.
29. Lawrence Fawcett & Barry J. Greenwood, The UFO Cover-Up (Originally Clear Intent), 1992, Fireside Books (Simon & Schuster), . Many UFO documents.
30. Web site: Critics hit Palace's 'new script' on PNoy's involvement in Mamasapano operation. GMANews.tv.
31. News: Thompson . Stuart A. . 2023-02-16 . 'Chernobyl 2.0'? Ohio Train Derailment Spurs Wild Speculation. . en-US . The New York Times . 2023-02-20 . 0362-4331.
32. Web site: Merlan . Anna . February 13, 2023 . The Conspiracy-Verse Thinks "Fake UFOs" Are a Distraction From a Disastrous Train Derailment . 2023-02-20 . Vice News . en.