clean breast

"He has got to make a clean breast. I usually find that if you make your apologies, it defuses the issue. Can't have it hanging on," said the lawmaker.

“I do,” Lawson said, adding, “I want to make a clean breast of it.”

But the federal prosecutors in New York’s Southern District require the full monty: a clean breast of all crimes ever committed, abetted or witnessed.

It is customary for coöperating witnesses, at the start of their testimony, to make a clean breast of things, so they cannot get caught out on subsequent questioning by the defense.

Unfortunately, rather than make a clean breast of it all, new FBI Director Christopher Wray behaves as though the bureau doesn’t need to answer to the American people’s elected representatives in Congress.