Looking for a phrase that means...

In My Humble Opinion
1

Hi to the wordsmiths at the dope… the smartest on the planet, in this galaxy and some say the universe…

Is there a proverb that means the same as
“Committing a big stupid to cover up a small stupid”?

In relation to a recent story around here where a uni student agreed to blackmail from a cop so that he wouldn’t tell her parents she got caught bonking her boyfriend in a parked car…

He ended up extorting a blowjob from her and raping her (and has since been arrested)

Would love to have a phrase that conveys the meaning that agreeing to pay a bribe in return for keeping this from the 'rents is a much bigger stupid than the relatively minor indiscretion of having sex in a parked car…

2

When money is involved, the concept is usually called [“throwing good money after bad;”](throw good money after bad) it refers to a situation in which you have spent some money unwisely, and choose to spend additional money to improve the situation instead of just cutting your losses and moving on.

“Cutting off the nose to spite the face” refers to injuring oneself during an effort to injure someone else.

I’d say “throwing good money after bad” comes close, but not quite - since the blackmail offer actually made things worse for her. Not sure there’s a better idiom for her specific situation, though.

3

It might convey similar things if “out of the frying pan, into the fire” weren’t so dire in its usual usage.

4

“Throwing the baby out with the bathwater” maybe, but that’s more like abandoning an effort you deem to be unsalvageable.

5

Pulling a “Christie”?

(The myriad of cover-ups and stone-walls after 'Bridge-Gate" seem to apply.)
Chris “Sit-Down-And-Shut-Up” Christie

6

There’s an explicit phrase: It’s not the crime, it’s the coverup.

7

when you’re in a hole stop digging

she swallowed the spider to catch the fly

8

Robbing Peter to pay Paul?

9

Cleaning with a muddy mop?

10

Peter Morris has come closest to what I’m looking for…

Well done sir!

11

It’s crackers to slip a rozzer dropsy in the snide.

Alleged Cockney slang for “It’s crazy to bribe a cop with counterfeit money”.

12

Nitpick: that should be: “…the dropsy in snide.”

13

I’ve seen newspaper articles about people late for a flight who think calling in a bomb threat to delay takeoff is a good idea. It almost never is.

14

There is nothing in the OP to indicate that she swallowed.

Rubbing a peter to pay for the fall

15

Maybe not quite on the spot, but there is the German word “verschlimmbessern”, literally “to make things worse while trying to make them better”. Adopt it!

16

I kind of like “Committing a big stupid to cover up a small stupid”.