The Essence of Plausible Deniability

Speakers who want to be deceptive, but also want to maintain the appearance of being truthful can instead be truthfully misleading by claiming they didn't intend to lead to a particular inference. This is a form of vagueness and deception often relies on intentionally making vague statements that allow for a greater number of possible interpretations. In short, by reducing the informativeness of what you say, you create the opportunity to mislead people without actually lying.