'Hostage situation': Trump admin accused of hatching wild scheme to oust university leader

The ousted former president of the University of Virginia spoke out on Friday in a letter that details the full extent of an intimidation campaign against the institution by the Trump administration's Justice Department, reported The New York Times.

The prestigious public research institute, founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, was one of a number of schools the Trump administration threatened with fines, investigations, and legal action unless officials abolished their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. The administration singled out the president, James Ryan, as an obstacle to doing so.

Ryan said the school’s board had been "unwilling to take on the Trump administration and had essentially traded his resignation for a deal to spare the school investigations and fines," said the report — a startling contradiction of the Justice Department's claims that it never requested Ryan's resignation.

"Mr. Ryan said in the letter that on June 26, a member of the board and two lawyers for the university told him that, following a call with a top Justice Department official, he had four hours to resign, or severe punitive measures would be leveled against the school by the Trump administration," per the report.

In the letter, Ryan wrote, “The call for my resignation, right until the end, seemed so outlandish as not to be entirely believable. It also felt like a hostage situation, where the kidnapper threatens harm if you do not keep information about the demands confidential. I was repeatedly told to keep this threat confidential and scolded for sharing the information with some close colleagues to help me think through the best path.”

“If I did not resign that day, I was told that the D.O.J. would extract/block hundreds of millions of dollars from U.Va. before they would even negotiate. I was then told that the D.O.J. had offered an amazing deal — unlike any the lawyers had ever seen, in their words,” Ryan continued. On the other hand, if he resigned, “They were basically willing to grant U.Va. blanket immunity — all of the inquiries and investigations would be suspended, no financial penalties would be imposed and agencies would be told not to cut off our research funding.”

"As far as I know, I am the only university president in the country who has been forced to resign as part of a supposed deal with the Trump administration,” said his letter. “At the very least, we had board members who were apparently more complicit than other universities.”

Ryan's letter comes shortly after a clash spilled out into the open between Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Democratic Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger, the latter of whom issued a notice for the U.Va. board to pause their search for a new president until she has filled all the board's vacancies. Youngkin responded with a furious letter insisting Spanberger is not the governor yet and cannot order the board to do any such thing.