Wiretapping of the Democratic Party's headquarters. E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, who led the Watergate break-in team, were stationed in a Watergate Hotel room while the burglary was underway. A lookout was posted across the street at the Howard Johnson Hotel.
The judge, however, remains above the fray, providing an independent and impartial assessment of the facts and how the law applies to those facts. Many criminal cases - and almost all civil ones - are heard by a judge sitting without a jury. The judge is the trier of fact, deciding whether the evidence is credible and which witnesses are telling the truth.
The function of a grand jury is to accuse persons who may be guilty of an offense, but the institution is also a shield against unfounded and oppressive prosecution. It is a means for lay citizens, representative of the community, to participate in the administration of justice.