Until 1973, John J. Sirica was a U.S. district judge in the District of Columbia, little known to the world outside district politics. He was a Republican appointee to the bench during the Eisenhower administration. His career was only modestly distinguished, with a reputation as a "hanging judge" who parceled out maximum sentences to criminal offenders. But that was a relatively insignificant prelude to the role he would play as the man ultimately responsible for bringing down a U.S. president, Richard Nixon.

By the time the Senate hearings began that summer, probing into a June 17, 1972 burglary of Democratic National Headquarters during that year's presidential campaign, Judge Sirica's name was already synonymous with the biggest political scandal of the twentieth century: Watergate. The Watergate apartment and office complex overlooking the Potomac River was not simply the site of the break-in. Watergate became the term that served as the...