put up a smokescreen

“The president put up a smokescreen behind which he is determined to reform the political system based on a new ideological project,” political scientist Vladimir Pastukhov wrote in the Novaya Gazeta newspaper.

Prosecutor William Mousley QC said the ex-player had "put up a smokescreen".

"There's an obvious reason as to why he lied and that's because he knows he is guilty of sexual assault but wants to put up a smokescreen, cause a diversion, suggest it was not, as it so obviously was."

That plan amounted to an effort by Barr to put up a smokescreen to obscure the true findings of the report, Nadler charged.

Jordan T Smith, an assistant Nevada solicitor general, countered at Wednesday’s hearing that Nevada did not put up a “smokescreen” or do anything wrong in getting the drugs.