negotiating a job with an entity that you were supposed to be regulating? >> not that i'm aware of. >> it raises questions of conflict of interest. >> reporter: joan claybrook was a long-time president of consumer advocacy group public citizen and before that ran nhtsa for years. >> there should not be a revolving door of people going from the government immediately to a company regulated by the agency. >> reporter: a year later when nhtsa decided to investigate complaints of sudden acceleration in some toyota models, its officials sat across from santucci, their former colleague, to discuss parameters. 20 days later nhtsa issued a memo excluding certain reported incidents. are you suggesting that, in fact, toyota and a former nhtsa employee worked with the federal agency to basically narrow the scope of the investigation? >> that's how it appears to us.