The ugly split between Alabama A&M University’s Board of Trustees and its former president, Robert R. Jennings, just got uglier. The board fired Mr. Jennings in March after investigating perks received by his former executive assistant. Now Mr. Jennings is suing trustees for allegedly conspiring against him, according to The Huntsville Times.

The lawsuit, filed last week, asserts that a trustee and a former state official began an “orchestrated effort” to fire Mr. Jennings months before his actual ouster. Mr. Jennings also says that the official, Malcolm Thomas, a former director of the Governor’s Commission on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, pressured him to hire a specific contractor for a dormitory-renovation project and promised him a kickback.

Mr. Thomas denied the charge, calling it a “first-class lie,” according to the newspaper. The board’s lawyer said none of the lawsuit’s assertions about Mr. Thomas’s conduct have “any relevance or meaningful connection” to actions taken by trustees. —Paul Fain