the.com/whitewash

means To cover up faults, errors, or wrongdoing with a deceptively favorable gloss, making something look clean or innocent when it isn't.

from It starts literally: whitewash is a cheap lime-and-water wash used for centuries to brush onto walls, fences, and barns for a quick, bright coat of white. The figurative sense — slapping a flattering surface over something rotten underneath — grew naturally from that practice sometime in the 1700s, since literal whitewash was often used to make shabby or decaying structures merely look fresh rather than actually fixing them. From there it jumped to cover-ups of scandals, reputations, and official reports, where the 'paint job' is rhetorical instead of literal.