Leaving out the part that makes you look bad is still lying. It’s just lying by editing.

An account can be entirely true sentence by sentence and still be built to mislead. Omission works better than invention because nothing you said can be held against you; the other person simply arrives at the wrong conclusion using facts you supplied. What makes it lying is the intention, not the technique. You knew which detail would change their mind.

Before you tell the story, find the part you are planning to leave out and put it in first, while you still control the timing. It lands far better from you than from someone else later.