American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer denied bail after being charged with killing Canadian couple
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
Anthony Scaramucci recalled for a jury Thursday his role in filling jobs in former President Donald Trump's administration as he testified against a Chicago banker, saying he never would have considered the man for a job if he knew he was giving US$16 million in loans to Trump's ex-campaign manager.
Scaramucci, 57, was testifying for the government in its case against Stephen Calk, the former chief executive of The Federal Savings Bank who has pleaded not guilty to financial institution bribery and conspiracy charges.
Answering questions from a prosecutor for an hour, Scaramucci said he had not known Calk before he was recommended for key positions in Trump's administration by Paul Manafort after Trump was elected to the presidency in November 2016.
Manafort, who served as Trump's campaign manager for a key stretch from June to early August 2016, reached out to Scaramucci in mid-to-late December 2016 to encourage him to consider Calk for an important post in Trump's administration, Scaramucci said.
Scaramucci said Manafort never mentioned he was trying to get $16 million in loans from Calk's bank for real estate ventures. If he had, Scaramucci said, he never would have considered Calk for a post.
After speaking with Calk on the phone on Dec. 27, 2016, Scaramucci received a series of text messages from Calk in the following days asking him about prospects for a Trump Tower interview for various positions, the witness recalled.
"I indicated to him I was doing my best to get him the interview that was requested but I also indicated that there seemed to be other people in line for those jobs," Scaramucci said.
In early January, Calk sent a message to Scaramucci asking if he was "still in the game," according to court exhibits. In another two days later, he asked: "Hi Anthony. Any word at all?"
Prosecutors say Calk was pressing his bank's loan committee and underwriters to give Manafort the loans he needed as he pressed for Trump administration jobs that he never got, including secretary of the Army.
Calk's attorney, Paul Schoeman, said a day earlier in opening statements that his client did nothing illegal because the approval of the loans was not dependent on him and because they seemed like a great deal for the bank at a time when Manafort was viewed as a wealthy and successful "rock star in the world of politics."
Besides serving on Trump's transition team, Scaramucci also served briefly in July 2017 as the White House communications director.
During his testimony, he described sitting next to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani on election night 2016 when the first results came in from Florida.
He said Giuliani "turned to me and said: 'It's very likely now that Mr. Trump is going to win the election."
Scaramucci is scheduled to resume testimony on Tuesday. As he left the courthouse, he declined to comment on the trial or anything else as he quipped: "That's unusual for me, right?"
Recently, he has often had harsh words for Trump, even tweeting early this year: "Republican elected officials still supporting Trump need to be tried alongside of him for treason."
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
Cabinet minister Dominic LeBlanc says he plans to run in the next election as a candidate under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's leadership, amid questions about his rumoured interest in succeeding his longtime friend for the top job.
A male columnist has apologized for a cringeworthy moment during former University of Iowa superstar and college basketball’s highest scorer Caitlin Clark’s first news conference as an Indiana Fever player.
Health Canada will change its longstanding policy restricting gay and bisexual men from donating to sperm banks in Canada, CTV News has learned. The federal health agency has adopted a revised directive removing the ban on gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, effective May 8.
The United States has vetoed a widely backed UN resolution that would have paved the way for full United Nations membership for the state of Palestine.
Bayer announced Thursday it is recalling two lots of its hydraSense Baby Nasal Care Easydose due to a potential contamination.
Technology from the 19th century has been brought out of retirement at a Newfoundland gardening store, as staff look for all the help they can get to fill orders during a busy season.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
A group of suspects that allegedly defrauded seniors across Ontario and other parts of Canada using a so-called emergency grandparent scam appear to have ties to 'Italian traditional organized crime,' according to an investigator involved in the OPP-led probe.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a grade four student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.
While many people choose to keep their medical appointments private, four longtime friends decided to undergo vasectomies as a group in B.C.'s Lower Mainland.