The former president of the University of Virginia, in his most expansive statement since he resigned in June, described in a letter to the faculty Friday the immense pressure the Justice Department had directed at him and the school in his final days in the position and said that his ouster had been publicly mischaracterized.

In an extraordinary 12-page letter, the former president, James E. 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.

The Justice Department has said it never told the school to oust Ryan. The school’s board, however, has said that the department wanted him to step aside. Ryan said in the letter that on June 26, a member of the board

See Full Page