The grand jury system and due process rights generally are recognized as two of the major 'checks' in protecting citizens from the inherent dangers that may exist should the government's executive branch be tempted to use the criminal justice system as a vehicle for its own political purposes. These historical checks, however, seem to have dissolved in present practices and procedures implemented by Federal prosecutors in their investigations of public officials. The grand jury investigation of Walter L. Nixon, Jr., is a paradigm example of this. This article's author took notes throughout the Nixon trial, and cross-checked them with the trial transcript. Grand jury problems revealed in the Nixon proceedings relate to the prosecutor's power to use the Federal grand jury to deny grand jury targets their usual due process rights and then to subject them to criminal liability for perjury, which is occasioned by the grand jury process itself. 7 notes, 10-item bibliography. (Author abstract modified)