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 purpose of the Judicial branch is to fulfill the mandate of the Constitution to the effect that every person has a right to a trial by jury in front of a competent judge. The Judicial Branch is comprised of the Supreme Court, United States district courts, and United States courts of appeals. All of these are Federal courts, and can make decisions concerning interpretation of the law that are binding on lower courts.