A senior Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) executive in the United States warned in a January email that the automaker needed to “come clean” on a safety defect that caused accelerator pedals to become stuck open.

The January 16 email from Irv Miller, then Toyota’s top U.S. spokesman, was sent five days before the automaker launched a recall for about 2.3 million vehicle to fix the sticky accelerator pedals.

“We are not protecting our customers by keeping this quiet,” Miller said in his email. “The time to hide on this one is over. We need to come clean.”

A copy of the document was obtained by Reuters on Thursday. Its release comes as Toyota considers whether to appeal a proposed $16.4 million safety fine by U.S. safety regulators.

The email exchange between Miller and a Japanese colleague arguing against responding to media reports of mechanical failures highlights the gap in the level of urgency at the U.S. arm and headquarters — a problem that Toyota later acknowledged contributed to delays in its responses.

The email from Miller, who was about to retire a month later, was one of thousands of pages of internal correspondence collected by U.S. government officials investigating Toyota.

The U.S. Department of Transportation proposed the fine against Toyota — the largest allowed by law — and said that the automaker had knowingly delayed the recall for defective accelerator pedals.

Toyota has two weeks to decide whether to appeal that penalty for the first official finding that the world’s largest automaker violated U.S. safety regulations.

Toyota spokesman Mike Michels said on Thursday that the automaker had not determined its response yet.

The automaker said it would not comment on Miller’s email.

“We have publicly acknowledged on several occasions that the company did a poor job of communicating during the period preceding our recent recalls,” Toyota said in a statement.

via Toyota exec warned on defect: We need to come clean | Reuters.