When an Oath of Poverty (or Waterboarding) Isn't Even Enough .....

I've been following with some interest the saga of pitchman Kevin Trudeau and his battle with a federal judge here in Chicago. The judge refuses to believe that Trudeau is not hiding scads of wealth in offshore accounts to avoid paying a $37 million FTC fine against him. In a move that harkens back to the dark days of not-so-jolly old England,  the judge remanded Trudeau to prison for failing to reveal his supposed hidden assets. Indefinitely. No way out. Indeed, when Trudeau came back for the "have you had enough" hearing today, he offered to be waterboarded to prove that he wasn't hiding wealth offshore. The judge simply refused to believe him and, oddly, seems to have admitted that he "may never believe Trudeau has disclosed everything – waterboarding or not." If this isn't prejudicial bias, I'm not sure what is.

What a nightmare. And what a sad state of affairs for a country that has come so far since the days of imprisonment for debt. As more and more countries understand that heavy-handed tactics like this are not constructive, state and federal judges in the US continue to exercise discretion to imprison debtors with apparently no effective check on abuse of power. I'm not positively asserting that the judge here is abusing power, because I haven't followed every moment of the case. But I couldn't let yet another story about this case go by without observing that this really, really troubles me. Say what you will about Trudeau and the snake-oil salesmanship that got him into trouble with the FTC and ultimately led to his criminal contempt conviction, but this "I just don't believe you're not hiding assets, and I probably will never believe you" bit really challenges my faith in the rule of law in this country. Maybe I'm just horribly naive.