More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
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."
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
A girl and a boy, both 14 years old, made their first appearance today in a Halifax courtroom, where they each face a second-degree murder charge in the stabbing death of a 16-year-old high school student.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.