exculpation

This lack of empathy revealed a man focused only on his own exculpation.

To get a letter of exculpation, O’Brien agrees to take a lie-detector test.

But his feeble attempts at exculpation were not working.

It was not sworn testimony, but an autobiography with all the self-flattery and exculpation associated with that genre.

Less convincing are her strained exculpations for Roxelana, insisting that she was not behind various unsavory murders that benefited her.