This operative phrase is, I believe, mistakes were made.
Whether you’ve been judged responsible for some unconscionable blast of corporate malfeasance, you’ve wantonly contributed to the escalation of dangerous hi-jinks outside a biker bar, or if it’s just that you’ve been locked out of your car by the dog, with the engine running, you can always do worse than the simple terse issuance of this reliable construction: Mistakes were made.
Once you’ve admitted mistakes were made, even with the implication that it wasn’t necessarily you who made them, you can get away with almost anything.
See, for example, the banks.